New Fiction: The Man in the Reflecting Pool

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My flash fiction, The Man in the Reflecting Pool is featured in Stanley the Whale.

He had been coming to the reflecting pool for years. For as long as he had been, so had the reflecting pool.

So had his reflection.

It was the man’s reflection who met him each morning, who ate with him. Who listened. He looked as dirty as the man did, sometimes dirtier. But he never mocked the man. He never shied away. They looked directly at each other without the evasion others held for those who reminded them of what they could become, with only a few missteps.

Click to keep reading.

New article: “Love Through Actions”

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New post over at LoveLoveChina:

My Chinese wife rarely says “wo ai ni” (“I love you”).

One day at dinner I remarked offhand that I had worn holes in a pair of socks. It was just one pair; God knew I had plenty more at home.

She showed up the next day with a new pair. Like I said, she rarely says “wo ai ni“.

Perhaps she doesn’t have to.

Check out the rest here. Thanks to Crystal!

First Impressions are Everything

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Here’s something I wrote up the day after my arrival in China:

– Driving here is insane. On the way from the airport, our driver nearly hit a several people, pedestrians included.

– Drivers here are not hesitant to honk their horns at you. Even if you’re a pedestrian crossing at a designated crosswalk. But I have the right away! No, you do not.

– The dollar is worth more than the yuan (RMB). It will carry you far.

– My apartment is brand-new, furnishings included.

– The internet is of course filtered, so I cannot officially access wordpress. Right now, I’m using a web-based anonymous proxy.

– At our welcome dinner last night, the food packed quite a punch. The Wuhan delicacies tend to be on the VERY spicy side.

– There is a street close by, I don’t know the name, full of street vendors selling an assortment of items.

– Try to learn some Chinese before coming here. That way, when you order noodles from a street vendor, you know the price they are quoting and are not stuck with handing them a 10 and hoping for the best.

– However, now that I have internet access, that should change. There are lots of online tools that assist language learning.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back later with clearer, more in-depth posts.

August 29, 2008

Coming to China for the first time is an experience I’ll never be able to relive. The best I can hope for is stumbling across old writings like this. :)

Old blog imported

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I’ve imported all the posts from my old blog, Chronicles of the Dancing Laowai, all under the aptly titled category, Chronicles of the Dancing Laowai.

You are now free to wince your way through my early China columns, ruminations, rants and general musings.

>guo jia

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>In this comments section,  I found this:

什么时候不是老死的都是普通人，郭家就有希望了，祝回家过年的普通人都能平平安安的。

I was a little confused by “郭家” until my wife pointed out that he actually meant “国家”. Was it a mistake? No. Apparently, he chose 郭 over 国 to avoid possibly having his post deleted.

Like 草 泥马，Chinese homophones and characters give people many options for circumventing censorship. Interesting.