Status Updates From Little Reunions

‘Maugham’s stories—In her eyes—nonsense—she suspected it was all an act—Penang girls teased each other—as they were passing the Catholic cemetery at Happy Valley—THIS DAY MY MORTAL REMAINS TO NATIVE SOIL RETURN JUST AS ONE DAY YOU TOO WILL FOLLOW—That tone evoked the style of—overseas Chinese—hint of eerie humour in the face of death—boys lugged—burlap sack—of black bread issued by the Air Raid Defense Headquarters—’

‘She was Shanghainese but here the lingua franca was—English/Cantonese. Mainlanders shunned speaking Mandarin & Shanghainese in public—The sunlight—baked—red flowers in the blue ceramic flowerpots—bleached the sea to a faded hue, like old blue linen—voices & countenances of the two women did not reveal what was on their minds—Cantonese men have unique features—tortoiseshell-framed spectacles adorned his broad face—’

in light of my trip to china and taiwan~