Andre’s Reviews > Treffpunkt Lotossee > Status Update

Zhang not caring about Wu Min slashing his wrist is traditional chinese behavior, the only thing not fitting is probably that Wu Min is already too old, back in the Qing times the male prostitutes had to be underage.

Oh boy, just these few people at the lotus pond already sound so different from what I know from the Qing times, the two "boys" are called Jade and Rat, the favorite of the general is a 30 year old native with big muscles and Rat had to deal with a costumer that burned him with cigarettes.

At least I can understand what is written here, unlike the last time I read some "queer" literature from Taiwan.

The ending sounds a little bit like romanticizing the "dark kingdom" to me. And it does feel a bit open ended to me, how A-qing found that new boy... whose name I already forgot, someing about Luo or so.
This really does feel like collection of short stories.

So Little Jade did get to Tokyo and works at a chinese restaurant... we will see how long that will last.
A-qing actually did visit Moon Beauty and Heavensent and found a job as a waiter.
Wu Min takes care of scarface after he had a stroke... no change there in their abusive relationship.
And Mousey was caught stealing and is called a kleptomaniac in prison, and believes what he does is not stealing.

This was probably different for the author, but I feel no true sympathy towards Papa Fu and Dragon Prince's father, no A-Qing's father. All of them cursed their sons for being what they are either in words or in deeds. Also A-Wei commited suicide because of it, Dragon Prince became practically a ghost for 10 years and A-qing lived on the streets and Fu demands them to think how much their fathers suffer?

I have the feeling we won't see Moon Beauty and Johnny Jr. again, A-qing is so fickle in my mind that it is a wonder he stuck with the other four, plus he still didn't get that he couldn't keep Sonny. A-Qing is just kind of an idiot, and so are the other three. Jade still wants to go to Tokyo no matter what, Mousey still hates "Rotten Peach" for whatever reason but never blames his brother, even now apparently.

So Wu-min's aunt is a Hakka... makes me wonder whether his mother was too. His aunt kciked his mother out of the house when she was pregnant while his father was in prison and I don't know enouzgh about Hakka customs to know whether she would do that to a blood relative and so far the constellation was not clarified beyond parent-child.

What makes Chief Yang believe that A-qing, Wu-Min, Little Jade and Mousey are any good in his new, and pretty hidden, bar? A-xiong at least can be useful due to his size but these four have fucked up every chance they had for a better live, just in this book alone Mousey is a notorious thief, Wu-Min tried to commit suicide because his "lover" didn't want to anymore and Jade quit his job due to similar reasons.

We just got a retelling, a short one at least, of what Dragon Prince (I tend to forget his name except for "Wang") told A-Qing but I wonder why. Sure it was woven into the story at least but still, did the author think readers would forget this quickly? Also Sonny is forgotten apparently.
Anyway, things like this are the reason why I think this reads more like a collection of short stories than a single novel.