Ysabelle Cheung is a writer and art critic based in Hong Kong. Her fiction writing has appeared in Granta, Slate, and The Rumpus. She was awarded the 2023 Aspen Words fellowship and was in residence at the Jan Michalski Foundation in 2024. Her essays and cultural criticism have appeared in The Atlantic, Artforum, and LitHub.

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FICTION

Excerpt from "To My Great-Granddaughter, Who Will Find This Letter When I Am Dead" from Patchwork Dolls

By YSABELLE CHEUNG

First, find uncolonized land. If that is not available to you, soil that is mostly left untreated—preferably even abandoned—will suffice.