Short Stories Behind Traditional Weaving Shuttles (Yatkam Loom)

This book is the fourth edition of a short story collection by Sayama Khin Khin Htoo. Many young people nowadays only recognize her as a novelist who writes full-length novels. We cannot blame the young readers, as by the time they started reading, the magazine era had ended. Short stories in traditional form have disappeared. Most of the well-known and successful novelists today are those who lived through the golden age of short stories. The fifteen short stories in this book by Sayama Khin Khin Htoo were originally published in magazines at an earlier time.
When publishing collections of her short stories, the author has given them distinctly Myanmar titles such as Thanaka Flower Short Stories, Fresh Betel Leaf, Golden Quid Short Stories, Sanyitwine (top knot with a circular fridge) Short Stories, Pakwatkya (traditional folktales), Zaychin (Market Basket) Short Stories, Elegant Carriage Short Stories, and so on. She seems to title this book as Short Stories Behind Traditional Weaving Shuttles (Yatkam Loom), likewise.
In the foreword, she writes that “I am delighted to have titled this book using the terms and motifs from the rural Upper Myanmar which are close to my heart.”
“In the village where I grew up, nearly every household had a small weaving loom. Wherever you went, you would always hear the rhythmic and repetitive series of the handloom sound. Sitting at the loom, weaving a longyi around their waists, pulling the shuttle back and forth with an appealing sound. The nostalgia of weaving sound, image of village girls and rural life evoked sensory experience connecting to memories of childhood, where the sounds of clucking hens and the clacking of looms are the symbol of Myanmar home and cultural expression of Myanmar people.” Starting this quotation, the author later shared knowledge of Myanmar’s weaving and traditional settings with the readers.
She also gives a remark in the foreword about the inseparable connection between Myanmar women and weaving, with the saying: “Illiterate? The blind. Can’t weave? A loss” was quite profound. Back in the day, women had few educational opportunities. Yet they had to know how to weave at least. The sound of the loom could be heard across the entire village. Once a girl came of age, she would begin her work connected to the loom.
The first short story, titled Twisted Thread, starts with the quotation,
“It’s been quite a few years since our family sold the apartment by the riverbank and moved into the ward of the new town. Yee Htwe’s family had been settling here for over ten years. They arrived when the new town was first established. Since Yee Htwe were old timers in the new town and we were newcomers, we relied on them for everything. Whenever we needed something in the new town, we had to ask Yee Htwe. Back in the riverside apartment, living in a four-story building with forty units, forty households, there were plenty of children to send on errands, plenty of women to run and do things. After moving to the new town, weren’t Yee Htwe’s daughters the only people to make them go somewhere? That’s why we couldn’t avoid getting close to them.”

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