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Shing (disambiguation)

Shing may refer to:

  • Shing, a fictional alien race, the 'Enemy' of the Hain/Davenant derived humanoid races
  • Sheng (surname), Shing in Cantonese
  • SHing, a term for self-harm
  • Shing, Tajikistan
Shing

The Shing are a fictional alien race, in the Hainish Cycle of novels and short stories of the science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin. They are only explicitly described in City of Illusions, but seem to be the same as the distant but threatening 'enemy' mentioned in Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile. In The Left Hand of Darkness, brief reference is made to an earlier 'Age of the Enemy' which is now past. It seems the planets of the former League of Worlds have re-united as the Ekumen.

In her introduction to the 1978 hardback edition of City of Illusions, Le Guin regrets the improbable and flawed depiction of the villains, the Shing, as not convincingly evil.

Usage examples of "shing".

By the time I returned with it, she had helped Madam Shing to remove some of the robes that enveloped her, got her positioned comfortably on a sofa, and was massaging her arms and legs.

Madam Shing had seen only the one man, the man who climbed the ladder.

Madam Shing refused to elaborate her story a syllable beyond the bare bones of the facts she had already presented.

When the horses had been harnessed and the two cabs were ready -- one of them was waiting out of sight -- we bundled Madam Shing up again, Lady Sara gave her congratulations and thanks, added a few shillings to compensate her for her ordeal in walking so far in the cold, and assured her we would take action at once.

He was trapped there for several minutes, and while he was waiting Madam Shing flung the door open and leaped out.

He boldly strode back along the side street and met Madam Shing without giving her a glance.

Christmas Eve -- and established a watch on the house Madam Shing had fled to.

On the opposite side was the building where Madam Shing paid an extra shilling a week so she could enjoy a front room.

It was all of twelve feet away, but perhaps Madam Shing had been so startled by what she saw that she got the window wrong.

I had been in the neighbourhood numerous times to call on Madam Shing, but I had never noticed that particular shop.

Madam Shing would have felt that truth was a sacred trust in her relation with me.

He had terrified Madam Shing into calling on me and telling his lie for him -- he knew the ploy had worked, because it got both me and the police there -- and he wanted to make further use of me.

He grinned slyly at Tarko, looking round to see if Shing shared the jest.

Wordlessly he grabbed the keyboard from Shing, frowned at it and stabbed a key.

Tabitha heard Saskia suck a sharp breath through her teeth when it cried out, high and shrill, as it had while Shing was torturing it.