Status Updates From Time Tunnel: Stories and Es...

‘She didn’t mention that he had an inferiority complex. Teaching Chinese language—was a step below—Chinese literature. And—came with a provincial Jiangxi accent—It’s true, she thought, that after you’ve overindulged you can feel disillusioned. And, at the same time, lose all respect for America—She’d—translate from Chinese to Korean—But—pay was low—This avoidance of any contact with refugees—felt a bit insulting—’

‘She couldn’t speak Shanghainese—soft—slurry syllables gave her goosebumps—But her Mandarin wasn’t the standard kind—imitating—sort of “stage talk” had always felt unnatural to her. The—crowd in Shanghai lumped everything that wasn’t Shanghainese/Mandarin into one dialect: Northern—meaning north of the Yangtze River. The rickshaw drivers all came from there—The—flowers—fragrant blooms—It could have been—magnolias—’

‘She couldn’t speak Shanghainese—soft—slurry syllables gave her goosebumps—But her Mandarin wasn’t the standard kind—imitating—sort of “stage talk” had always felt unnatural to her. The—crowd in Shanghai lumped everything that wasn’t Shanghainese/Mandarin into one dialect: Northern—meaning north of the Yangtze River. The rickshaw drivers all came from there—The—flowers—fragrant blooms—It could have been—magnolias—’

‘Frugality was a longtime habit w/ him—partial to certain foods—she described his stoic habits—and how, although he loved eggs fried w/ Chinese cedar sprouts, when—market price when cedar sprouts—came into season, he was shocked & would not permit them to buy it—Talking with her father-in-law—there was a melancholy of the dreamy kind—which drowsiness crept—For breakfast—congee—pickled vegetables & crispy fried beans’

‘—hoarsely: “Whiskey—soda.” He—sink into a daze—Drinking too much is not good—but when it’s—like that—it has to count as a classy case of degeneracy—she looked at him—saw how embarrassed he was—thought it was because he wasn’t used to speaking English and couldn’t formulate a response. To keep things going she said : “It’s really cold today—I lived in Harbin when I was little—used to speak Chinese—I’ve forgotten it”’