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Migrant with the Machine Gun Arm

Ping pong diplomacy – a short story by Aaron Fox-Lerner

THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON CONCRETE FLUX

 

The first time I saw Fang Zheng, he was destroying a park full of old men. One after the other they would step up, and he'd humiliate them all in turn. He didn't play down or patronise them. He never slowed his speed. They'd all watch as he dispatched them as fast as possible, cutting them down with rapid fire arm strokes.

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Foreign elements

The unbearable lightness of being an expat in China – a Q&A with Tom Carter

 

Over at the LA Review of Books China blog, I interview Tom Carter in the wake of the collection of true stories from expat China he edited, called Unsavory Elements. Tom is originally from San Francisco and has been living in China for a decade. He also did a book of photography based on trekking 35,000 miles through 33 provinces for two years. I asked him about expat identity issues, to try and get under the skin of those “masochistic” enough, in his words, to call China home.

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Chinese Tuesdays: Kiwifruit

 

After looking up macaque and finding out that it's a kind of monkey, I had a good chuckle to myself over the Chinese calling kiwifruit macaque peach, 猕猴桃 (mí hóu táo). What a silly name, I thought – maybe they look like the back of a monkey’s head? The Baidu Baike page on macaque peaches says they are so named because macaques consider the fruit one of their favourite forest delicacies. It even has some peeling methods, with helpful pictures.

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Awkward Lavender

Trapped in a wedding photo – by Jesse Field

 

"Looking at the flowers” – kan hua'r – was what I was told we'd be doing Saturday afternoon, in a field of lavender up in Huairou, north of Beijing. My newly installed "second year in China" mentality in place, I felt surprise without any real anticipation. I was ready to be jaded. In a sedan with two of YK's friends – a boy and girl his age, Li Ning and Yang Yang, silly in love with each other – I didn’t attempt to make conversation, though I followed theirs well enough, and answered cheerfully any questions they asked.

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Pedicab Pursuit

On the lamb, chased by wolves – by Hudson Lockett

 

A friend and I hopped into the back of an electric pedicab (sanlunche or “three wheel vehicle”) and were being whisked north past Beijing Worker's Stadium along a nigh-deserted road when what looked like a police car swerved across the centre line, cutting off our middle-aged driver. She eased up on the throttle, but stopped short of the brakes when two toughs piled out of the car and began running toward us.

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