Convertirse en Inmortal, 成仙 ChéngxiāN, Becoming Xian: Memory and Subjectivity in Cristina Rivera Garza’s Verde Shanghai

Verde Shanghai, published in 2011 by Cristina Rivera Garza, is often used in discussions of Orientalism in Latina America and Mexico. The text employs tropes and stereotypes common in Orientalist thinking, but to label the work Orientalist and analyze it through that lens seems too simplistic. I argue that Verde Shanghai ultimately proves a refutation of Orientalism’s existence within Mexico, and, more broadly, an overall deconstruction of the East-West dichotomy. Rivera Garza appears more interested in using racial and cultural identities to dismantle the polar dichotomies in which her characters live, ultimately critiquing these frameworks in the outside world