May 09, 2016 06:22 PM
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This collection of 17 short stories is like a small album of exquisite Chinese paintings.
Mostly quite pieces, they do not conform to the usual patterns.
The Mountain Keeper describes just that - a man who has to be on a mountain in case tourists need information! But it will take you to where he is and involve you althoguh nothing very radical will happen.
Winter Worm Summer Weed is about a place in China near Tibet where people survive by eating rats. Yet it is a charming little story!
Beijing's Slowest Elevator almost has chapters. Yet it is quite artistically disconnected. You get to peek at the life of a woman working in a karaoke bar. Perhpas a prostitute? A relationship forms and breaks.
Lovers in the Age of Indifference is about a man who follows a woman - he appears dangerous but is baffled by the woman's gentle rejection.
Junk Mail makes a tale out of that kind of email. We all get them: from Nigeria and god knows where!
Then the Game Begins is about adultery and Mah Jong. A bit decadent and full of atmosphere.
Stateless follows a man about whom we get to know almost nothing and he meets a little girl and we never learn anything about her either.
In An Internet Baby a very young girl gets pregnant but the couple is not ready for marriage - so what to do with the baby? China has massive overpopulation but there's always someone who needs a baby.
Heartbreak is a cruel look at rejection. Somehow, when love ends for one partner, the other cannot get reconciled to that.
Beijing Morning Star brilliantly allows us to look at how editors tweak news stories. It will make you smile!
In Into The World a film script writer gets a servant boy. Loyal but uneducated he wants to be the champion of his master. He acts to ensure a reluctant paymaster apys up. But where does that leave him?
Address Unknown is, again, about heartbreak and how we go on trying long after the lover has disappeared from our life.
The Third Tree, similarly, traces such behaviour via sms.
In Anywhere I Lay My Head a woman successfully deceives her partner by meeting an old lover. The ease with which she does this for no reason leaves you feeling the bleakness of some choices in life.
Letters To A City Of Illusion And Hope is a set of love letters. But it's also a doomed love.
In Today I Decide To Die the rejected lover makes the drastic choice.
Lastly, Flower Of Solitude is a retelling of a Chinese myth.
It is like a story writing workshop to read this set! You will understand that there are many unusual ways to tell a tale.
