A personal blog that explores in-between places, languages, and states of being
I was introduced to the narrator of this story, Zhang Wen, when I was looking for someone in Wuhan to speak to. Like many people, I was surrounded by news about Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak, but I did not personally know anyone who lived there. I felt out of touch with that place I […]
和妈妈从健身房出来，半路碰上一位刚搬走的邻居，她叉着腰站在东方曼哈顿小区的侧门门口，看一块牌子上的房源信息……
I wanted to make chicken wings. No one in the family was particularly interested. But when I asked my cousin Heyi if he would like chicken wings and he said “Sure,” I decided to make them. He said, “Make them a little spicier.” But my chicken wing plan was postponed for days. The first day […]
I was lying naked in bed with my boyfriend who almost became my ex-boyfriend when Mom knocked on our door. We thought it was our neighborhor downstairs who had visited at random times since our water dripped into her apartment two months ago. We tried to ignore the knock and continue our conversation in hope […]
Sunday night is a time of parting. When I was young that was the time Dad would leave Mom and me. Now it’s the time I have to leave them. This weekend I stayed with them, the first time in almost half year. I had the idea of doing so because over the past few […]
Today could technically be the last day of my quarantine. Tomorrow I start to work in the office again, though only two days a week. To celebrate the end of this period David and I went for a walk at the Bund, just to see the best of Shanghai at its worst time. We spent […]
People asked what was the biggest difference between Covid-19 and SARS. The biggest difference to me was when SARS occurred I was a child. I didn’t have a phone and my mom didn’t have WeChat. Without social media we wouldn’t have responded so fast. We probably wouldn’t have felt as alert and together, and at […]
The moment he told me he wouldn’t marry me I went into a shock. One of those shocks I couldn’t be more familiar with – same as when he decided he wouldn’t date me, then he wanted to break up. It’s like playing a video game and when I finally reach the last round, I […]
– For the vast majority of us, the virus has been in our heads. While we feel it so close — it’s in the air we breathe and attached to our fingers. Everything that was once part of you becomes a potential source of contamination, including your phone and the body you sleep with. A […]
昨天出去走走，走过徐虹路上一个个小区，突然想到剑桥街上的一座座学院。[…]