In China...

In China he heard there was a drink that was half coffee, half tea, half strong, half weak, named after two birds that remained together for life. But he had never been to China, he did not know where to get this drink or what it was called. Soon he began to doubt he had heard the story at all...

In China young Tong women bite their lovers on the arm to show deep, festering love. Elsewhere young women leave their lovers to prove the same.

In Hangzhou there is a teahouse on a lake called "Reflections of the Moon's Impression on Three Profound Pools." It is built entirely of zig-zag corridors because evil spirits can only move in straight lines. If one leads their lives in a straight line, one path to one goal, does that mean that the evil spirits will inevitably catch up?

For the second time in my life I read the word Changsha. I see it on a map, a city in the Hunan province of China. I know nothing of it except that it has a hotel with red walls like cold chocolate and in it people do not sleep. I would like to go there some day but I am afraid I would fall asleep and it would not be the same. The deep, dark, wanting. If you do not sleep are you ever alone? If you do not sleep what is it you can dream of?

Changsha is the birthplace of Mao.

How easily we trick ourselves into thinking that what we feel somehow defines the lives of others. Memories we have of laughter in restaurants with yellowing walls are simply memories, after all. Where I remember laughter, perhaps she remembers only the shade of yellow, if anything at all...