A Study of the Xuhui Jiaotong Academy — With a Discussion of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Historical Origins
By Sima Xiaoqian (This work was funded by DreamBubble, Co. and the Parallel World Press Agency)
Fiction
39 posts
Youth
Sometimes a person remembers many things that never happened. It was 2006, and I had come to Xi'an. The autumn wind blew, and I felt it strip away everything material from my body, leaving me nothing …
A Fiction About Lu Yao (IV): Reunion with the Pure and White
Months have passed, and I still haven't been able to write the final chapter of this series. About Lu Yao, it seems I still have much to say — yet what more can I say?
Fireworks over the Himalayas
For a while, every day at noon I would go to the Regency Café and order a jasmine cold brew. When Fatima brought the coffee, I'd chat her up: "What a coincidence — Fatima again?" Because I made all of…
Yao Beina: This World—I! Was! Here!
This is the last lyric of "Heart Fire." If you've heard it, you know: those three exclamation marks were sung by Yao Beina. It is a song brimming with emotion, yet she sang it with elegance, restraint…
Meng Sheng
Note: Meng Sheng simply means "Mr. Meng" — a man surnamed Meng.
At Dao Lang's Concert, Witnessing an Artist Become Himself
"Thank you / for letting me in this ordinary world / discover myself." The first song was "Lover." Before the first note, the moment the first drumbeat reached my ears, I broke down crying, as though …
A Fiction About Lu Yao (III): The Long March from Wang Weiguo to Lu Yao
In the preceding text, we used the phrase "Beijing zhiqing" as a modifier to refer to Lu Yao's two lovers. This was not out of any perverse taste on the author's part. I wrote it this way because Lu Y…
U-Turn to Hohhot
I heard this story from Alarm Clock.
She Is Elva Hsiao, and Also May: The Woman Who Won't Let You Know Her Daughter Is Your Daughter
Elva Hsiao appeared in Infernal Affairs for just a few minutes — a cultural icon's finishing touch on a film and an era. I don't remember when I first saw it, but whenever it was, it completed the ima…
A Fiction About Lu Yao (II): "The First Choice" and "Damn It All to Hell, Literature"
This is the second installment of the series A Fiction About Lu Yao. This series is fictional writing; any resemblance to real events is purely coincidental. Recap of the first installment: A Fiction …
A Fiction About Lu Yao: The Man Who Talked Through the Night with 'Him' in a Cave Dwelling
All of this is what I've heard. It is said that he—the one you all know—during his years as a sent-down youth in northern Shaanxi, once knew Wang Weiguo. They shared the same ambition, the same love o…
A Snow Mountain Like an Ice Cream Bar
When you have a four-year-old daughter and a six-month-old son at home, plus a seven-year-old British Shorthair cat, the resolve needed for a family trip is probably equivalent to launching an uncerta…
Bus Route 400: A String of Happy Bullets
In certain cities, on certain evenings, there comes a brief and exquisite interval — when the sky turns a blue that defies description, quiet and seemingly eternal, though in truth it is about to go d…
"Xiao Ma Ge" from Still Life: A Spiritual Archetype of a Generation
In Jia Zhangke's Still Life, there is a quintessential "spiritual punk" character—the dock worker nicknamed "Xiao Ma Ge" (Little Brother Mark). He's a punk in the literal sense too, with his dyed yell…
That Big S
Having "big" or "small" in a name is common enough, but Big S always gives you a certain feeling: she is what remains of the S she is after you remove the small one, and Small S is what remains of the…
On Faye Wong
While driving Xiao Yuan and Xiao Yu on a lap around the city, I played Faye Wong's "Red Bean." To this day, Faye Wong and this city give me the same feeling: that sharp, youthful pain—so distant and e…
Pickup Court Memories: The Reservoir Court
At thirty-five, I liked to go to the gym at night and shoot baskets alone in the dark. Every day I walked 1.5 kilometers in a straight line, arrived at the gym, took off my down jacket, put on my nois…
Gray Snow Mountain
I often dream of a gray snow mountain, grayer and vaster than any snow mountain I have ever dreamed of. Once, I dreamed of it continuously for months, trekking day after day across a rock on the south…
The Beheading Dream
I had a beheading dream—dreamt that my head had been severed, and not cleanly either. So I carefully aligned the jagged edges top to bottom, securing them loosely with a scarf. This was, of course, ra…
Tales of the Western Capital: The Tooth Extraction
First came a big-eyed beauty poking around inside my mouth. Because of the mask and the close proximity, those eyes—which were merely somewhat large to begin with—became as vast as two lakes in which …
Beijing Tales: The Floor Cat of Line 4
Have you heard of the Floor Cat of Line 4? The Floor Cat of Line 4, rather than being a cat, is more like a kind of tiger—though of course cats are already a kind of tiger. People usually call tigers …
Beijing Tales: Watching The Wandering Earth with Mavis Fan
I spent the Spring Festival alone in Beijing. The Ziroom apartment complex had organized a gala, but I couldn't bring Duoqi Tsukuru along. So I cooked two dishes and celebrated by myself. The dishes w…
Brother Cat
It was a bright day. My mother called me over to look, and from her arms poked out a small yellow tiger-striped head. A light that contained neither sun nor moon—a brightness like the clarity after wa…
The Nonexistent Lover
The high-speed train from Yunfu East to Guangzhou South takes just over forty minutes. For Zhao Xiaomao, aching to see her lover, those forty minutes stretched into eternity. She clutched her tiny clo…
Beijing's Haze
Haze is a rather lovely character—雨中的猫—rain with a cat. Her paw pads soaked with rainwater, she treads across the rain-washed floor and leaps nimbly toward the sky. The elastic return to earth you exp…
Youth Crisis
Reaching thirty one morning startled to find I am not this person nor am I any of the persons who woke in shock each day before to find they were not this person either I suspect I am not the person I…
The Last Day of 2017: Driving 1,100 Kilometers to Beijing
I set off around ten in the morning and arrived in Beijing at eleven at night, sleeping for one hour in between — at a rest stop, of course. The route took me along the G30 Lianhuo Expressway to Fengl…
Driving Around the City on Christmas Eve
On the road I saw several enormous cranes, cordoned off with red traffic cones, hanging lanterns on trees. The area enclosed by the cones seemed to exist outside this world, oblivious to the tides of …
The Designated Driver Adventure
On the way back from working overtime on Saturday—just now—a torrential rain came down over Beijing. Cold, icy rain slapped my face haphazardly. Summer's dust and smell rose into the air. Walking down…
Miss Rocket Bear
Falling in love with a serious diversion. "It was that game, at the Toyota Center." Miss Rocket Bear hollered with excitement. "Where there's a road, there's a Toyota," I said absently, rather pleased…
Summer
Summer arrives the sky blank again the sun shining clearly on this side of the world the other side asleep houses standing upright on the ground drenched in sunlight as though humanity has perished th…
The Masked Rider on the Motorbike Taxi
The leaves hang motionless in the sky, only I can feel the wind. I am the masked rider of this city, masked with a face you do not know. Where did you see me? You might have just walked out of a shopp…
The First Snow of 2017
Head full of white snow like white hair,
Goldbach's Conjecture
"I read the garbage you wrote," my brother said, blowing smoke rings with a look of contempt. "Overblown and poorly constructed." The real story goes like this. My brother tossed his cigarette butt on…
My Twin Brother
The night before my fourteenth birthday, it began to snow. First came the salt-grain kind that crunched underfoot, each step like trailing a string of shattered dreams. Then it grew lighter, larger. L…
Pickup Court Chronicles: The Donkey at People's Hospital
On the slope behind the back gate of Xunyang County People's Hospital, there was a basketball court. When school was locked up during holidays, I often went there to play. Back then, I was nobody's Ke…
I Want to Write a Time-Travel Novel
The protagonist of this novel would be me. Before the time-travel, I was terrible at history — I understood neither the grand currents nor the succession of dynasties. After traveling back, I'd find m…
The Non-Existent Lover
A spark slowly grew at the Toyota Center arena logo, first catching James Harden's big beard on fire. Three Rockets players ran over to help put it out. Just then, Xiaoli walked out of the bathroom, w…