30 pages • 1 hour read
Saying Goodbye to Yang
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Themes
Technology as a Lens for Human Behavior
“Saying Goodbye to Yang” is a family drama set within the genre of speculative fiction. Its science-fiction and fantasy elements—cloning, Yang himself—heighten the world in which Jim and his family confront their loss. The genre is used as a lens for unpacking human behavior: the gamut of emotions Jim experiences after Yang’s malfunction encompass fears of mortality, cultural practices surrounding death, and our increasing dependence on devices.
“Saying Goodbye to Yang” shows a world that is recognizable yet still unlike our own. Yang, who may or may not have sentience, houses a computer program that is a store of cultural, familial, and societal knowledge in a humanoid body. Though we are not privy to a full description of Yang, we get clues that he resembles a Chinese teenage boy when Jim clocks his weight and contrasts his artificial skin with what Russ has in stock: “All of the skin tones are Caucasian” (9). As a “Big Brother” to Mika, Yang espouses facts about China, like a walking encyclopedia, and cares for her when Jim and Kyra are at work. They rely on a machine to do things humans would usually do, to a degree that surprises Jim; when tucking in Mika after Yang’s death, it’s the first time he’s “read to her in months” (17). Yang is performing duties that a parent might even though it is not his primary function. Without realizing it, Jim has come to rely on Yang for intimate tasks.
Yang is purchased for Mika, who is adopted—both circumstances arising out of Jim and Kyra’s disapproval of cloning, a technology that is normalized within the world of “Saying Goodbye to Yang.” When Yang dies, Kyra relaxes her stance on the “egocentric” practice, initially not wanting their “neighbors’ perfect kids making [Mika] feel insecure” (4). Acknowledging their need for help and also that Jim’s “brother and [wife] are planning on cloning this summer,” Kyra decides to let a friend’s daughter babysit (18). Kyra’s ethical malleability when faced with a crisis connotes the slippery slope in adopting technology we may find suspect because of its convenience. Yang’s moniker “Big Brother” can be construed as an allusion to the omnipresent authoritarian state in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” a seminal speculative fiction work, which lends a sinister undercurrent to the ubiquity of technology in the story.
Lastly, Jim and his family choosing to bury Yang “like pagans” signals their care for him (20). While the practice of interring a robot may seem odd to others, burial is the prevalent post-death rite for humans. Obsolesce stands in for death in “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” and Jim’s reactions fall in line with contemplating life’s big questions. Yang’s voice box remains in the family’s living room, allowing Mika to continue to interact with her Big Brother. However, Jim gets a sense something has changed for Yang, which confounds him. Even in a clear-cut case of a machine failing, its “death” incites eternal questions of the nature of consciousness, personhood, and the afterlife. The world in the story may include advanced technology, but it is filled with timeless human anxieties and wonder.
Race, Class, and Gender in a Dystopic Future
One of Weinstein’s aims in writing “Children of the New World” is to reflect and critique current events and attitudes, placing a layer of remove by setting his stories in the near future. Readers can recognize aspects of their world in the worlds of the characters. However, the distance amplifies behavior. Weinstein tackles climate change, isolationism, and artificial intelligence by placing his characters in situations where these concepts have been accelerated. Race, class, and gender roles feature prominently in “Saying Goodbye to Yang” even though the drama centers on a robot rather than just human beings. Jim and Kyra work at Crate & Barrel and Whole Foods, respectively. They live in a multi-bedroom house with a yard, and Jim only notices the limits of his privilege when it is aimed at Mika, who was adopted from China, and Yang, who appears Asian. Jim’s interactions with Russ and George reveal ideas about masculinity.
Yang’s purchase, or “adoption,” was precipitated by Jim and Kyra’s adoption of Mika from China. Wanting to preserve a connection to her homeland, and unable to provide cultural context due to their whiteness, Yang is brought home in part to teach Mika about Chinese history and traditions. While Yang addresses some of their limitations, Jim and Kyra are unable to shield Mika—and Yang—from bigotry. Jim recalls their being separated and stared at in the airport, and his exchanges with Russ further echo the post-9/11-like atmosphere Weinstein explores. Jim finds “photos of Russ and his kids, all of whom look exactly like him and, buried among these, a small sign with an American flag on it and the message THERE AIN’T NO YELLOW IN THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE” (10-11). The slogan upsets Jim and exemplifies Weinstein’s practice of tweaking modern societal issues through extreme examples. While this is used to distinguish character differences, it also reflects racism disguised as nationalism in the reader’s world. Even Yang, who is not human, is subjected to racism by Russ.
Like Weinstein, narrator Jim is white and lives in Michigan and has a child. Throughout “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” it is established that Jim and Kyra are “white, middle-class, and have lived an easy and privileged life;” adopting Mika was their attempt to “give something back to the world” (3). Again, Jim’s discomfort suffuses his interactions with Russ, whose shop “is located two miles off the highway amid a row of industrial warehouses […] Two men in caps and oil-stained plaid shirts are standing in front smoking cigarettes… they eye my solar car like they would a flea-ridden dog” (8). Jim is hyperaware of and/or projecting what these men must think of him and his car even before he’s confronted by Russ’s bigotry. He ends up going to Quick Fix for a second opinion not just because he disapproves of Russ, but because “The young techies with their polished manners always make me feel more at ease” (10). Jim only feels comfortable with people like him, even if he ends up getting the same answer from the indifferent teenaged repairman.
Lastly, through Jim, Weinstein comments both directly and indirectly about masculinity throughout “Saying Goodbye to Yang.” George is portrayed as a stereotypical “man’s man,” and Jim refuses to confide in him, hiding his emotions. George’s sensitivity surprises Jim, who even briefly misconstrues his affection for violence: “George reaches out across the hedge, his large hand coming straight at me […] For a moment […] I think he’s going to hit me. Instead he pats me on the shoulder” (17). While Jim has complicated feelings about masculinity, he nevertheless reinforces gender roles with Yang, sharing a beer after yardwork he says, “This is what men do for the family” (14). Even in a world where solar cars, cloned children, and robot babysitters are common, stereotypical gender roles pervade.
Grief, Loss, and Mortality
Though Yang is not a human being, his death ripples through “Saying Goodbye to Yang.” Jim grapples through stages of grief after Yang’s malfunction, from anger (“there goes eight thousand dollars” (6), to denial and bargaining (seeking a second opinion from Quick Fix), and depression (“I can feel the tears starting again” (16). Jim’s acceptance of Yang’s death culminates in burying Yang rather than recycling or trashing his body. Jim accepts both Yang’s place in their family and also how acute the loss is. Even if Yang “lives on” as a disembodied fount of information, their relationship is irrevocably changed.
The theme of mortality is complicated by technology. When a phone or computer stops working, people say it has died, parlance that doesn’t necessarily denote anthropomorphizing of that object. Weinstein’s inspiration for “Saying Goodbye to Yang” was humans’ increasing attachment to our devices, and the emotional impact when these devices fail. Utilizing the genre of speculative fiction, Weinstein amplifies this concept by making the device a family mourns a babysitter and surrogate brother to their child. Yang, an obsolete, inanimate device, malfunctions and cannot be repaired. Jim, Kyra, and Mika all illustrate what would be extreme reactions if, say, an iPhone dies. Yang’s humanoid form and ability to speak contribute to their grief, as Jim, embracing Yang for the first time, notes his weight approximates that of the “eighteen-year-old-boy he’s designed to be” (7). As Jim cycles through memories on his journey toward attempting to fix Yang and eventually accepting the loss of Yang, many touch on moments in which Yang was like a son to him. When Yang’s death is irreversible, Jim pales at the idea of having his body “ripped apart in a recycling plant, or stuffing him into our plastic garbage can and setting him out with the trash,” so they bury “their electronic equipment like pagans” (20-21).
Even in obsolescence, Yang remains a part of the family, his voice box displayed in their living room so Mika can still talk to her brother. When they gather to say goodbye to him after the funeral, Yang doesn’t comprehend what has changed since his body has died, and Jim struggles to inform him of the change. The “awkward moment” Jim and Kyra struggle through is similar to any parent’s discussion of death with a child (22). The mystery of the afterlife is no less compelling when incorporated into a story of a robot. Here, the heightened world of “Saying Goodbye to Yang” reveals a human heart.
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