1. 爱不释手[i]
(ài bù shì shǒu)
A vision of emptiness, that rebounded off the everything, reduced her to tears. So fondly her caress of herself reminded her of what she had lost. Lost was the form and function of the last century, the 20th century which thought of itself as modern or modern-esque. The Google slatehattern smhoos that cropped up around the city of Los Angeles with its Latin syllables enunciated or be Hong Kong shimmer glaring off the neonfanciful patina underneath the black silver sky was dying even as she hunted for a planet or bright star to hang her Black cocktail vintage hat on. It was the cheongsam flatter that once every woman wore in Kowloon City. (There were new styles in the true city.)
And she cried in summer created sloop Yau Tsim Mong’s main streets – Chatham Road, wide and given to cars. She turned onto a humancentric street with bright green Rolex Zurich and 鴻星中菜 in Red.[ii] It was the 21st century on the letter, but no one could say exactly what that meant. But she knew what that meant inside: she had two names one for. The English, which was “Maggie” it came from her nickname, 炒面, which was Chǎomiàn. She ate only fried noodles when she was growing up: from a round of little girl to a thin young lady. It was on one of these days when she slurped the fried noodles into her mouth that she realized that along the street several young men were looking at her. This was, to her, a surprise. Because it was the first time that anyone had looked at her. She bought that they were looking at her violet cheongsam but then she realized that they were looking through and imagining the nude skin that was shimmering underneath the sleek to her hip’s qipao dress.
A bit of rouge came through on her cheek because this made her realize that she had some gift of power that emanated from her hips and the gentle curve of her breast. She did not know what to do with this information, but she would think of something.[iii]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Be3 a6 7. f3 b5 8. g4 h6 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. 0-0-0 Bb7[iv] She would play that in her next tournament. It had been many years since she was introduced to the Western game of chess, and while Wei-chi was more popular in China she liked the fact that the chess players looked at her face and became confused as to whether they wanted to win to advance the rankings or to lose and get a chance to talk with her afterward. They were confused little boys striving to become men, but they did not recognize one of the first lessons of being an adult: memorize, memorize, memorize, let no one else’s work evade your eyes plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize.[v] Genuflect, Genuflect, Genuflect.[vi] They did not realize that the status quo meant they were simply wood pushers on the bomb.[vii]
It did not matter; she was only there for the checkmate. She learned ‘checkmate’ from an old man whose deep past was in Russia, though he called it CCCP in his language. A language that is now beyond saving.[viii]
She drifted back to the white-walled room that he barely kept himself attached to… but what truly bound him to this earth was a community, in the metaphysical sense of the word. 百年树人 bǎi nián shù rén.[ix] Missing: he was aground like one of the submarines.[x] The room smelled of oranges and vodka and had only two small windows on a grasswood sheen broken with mahogany bars. It was deep in the alley with a minor street casting red albums de neon off the other side of the opposite building.
She looked down at her scuffed leather shoes. “Why no light of your own?”
“The Neon light supplies that I need. Otherwise, I would fatten the prolonged candle flames.[xi]” He looked over her puzzled face. “It is not that dark.” And his fat face looked into the air and then he mumbled something like a stairway to heaven.[xii]
“I am ignorant and ill-informed of what you said.”[xiii]
“I’ve been alive[xiv].” She looked and thought how long he had waited to say that.[xv] He continues: “In this world, there are many men who would take advantage of you. Be careful who you attach yourself to because most men want something they should not have. Don’t let them take a photograph of you.”[xvi]
She did not know what he was talking about, but it must be serious. The red light from the neon cast a shadow on her yellow skin. Her face was drenched in sweat because the sun had just gone down.
On a bridge table was a green and white chess board with pure white and brushed-up black pieces. There was an analog clock on the left side. He watched her and then asked, “Do you know how to play?”
“I don’t even know what the game is.”
“Chess. It is called chess. Not Monopoly, Twenty-One, or Checkers.[xvii] Even in Bangkok.[xviii]” She did not that his moves were among the purest.[xix]
“The world has woken up from history.[xx] How do you play?”
“First you think that you play chess, but then you learn that it just plays you.”
She understood the idea of an obsession, her father was taken by drink, and her mother by opium. “Tell me the rules.” Her eye glowed, reflecting light upon the table as the glitter of her jewels rose to meet it.[xxi]
“Are you sure that you want to know?”
“If I was young, it didn’t stop you.[xxii] Make a quick decision.[xxiii] Perhaps it will be chess for me.”
“There will be problems you can see.”[xxiv]
He picked up the clock. It was very dim inside the room and the stench of white noodles and soy sauce pervaded the atmosphere. She did not notice this because she was absorbed. She read out of the corner of her eye the rules that were on the left side of the table. She read them quickly and in English because English was the real language of money. Both her parents imbibed the language as if it were mother’s milk. Even in the dim shadows of the room, her eyes caught everything but as, yet she did not know be meaning.
“Each player makes his move and then pushes the lever close to them. Then the other player makes his move. But remember if you touch a piece, then you must move it.”
She understood this, even just 得过且过. [xxv] “Video killed the radio star.”[xxvi]
He then went through the moves that each kind of piece made and explained how the King could be checked and if he had no other news then he was maht. He only had to go through this once and she understood it. Things were fluid in her mind.
Inside he was impressed because no one that he had explained the rules to had gotten it on the first pass. But outside his face was blank and he took the white pieces and he felt sure that he could use some simple mating technique to impress her. He did defeat her but only after a number of moves as she avoided the typical strategies. He was again impressed. Oh well, whatever, never mind.
Then she was back in the present, and she understood all that had been hidden. She looked about: Canton Road, Kowloon Park Drive, Nathan Road, and where she came from, Chatham Road South. There was just an instant in the dark. She wiped some detritus from her crotch. With the lights out, it's less dangerous.[xxvii]
Her decision was to go down to 梳士巴利道 where the air opened up to the sea and Victoria Harbor called to her, though gently with a hum.[xxviii] The Golden Age of Wireless had passed.[xxix] It was as if they now meet in an abandon studio.[xxx] His name was Tal. She didn’t know if it was the first name or the last. Perhaps it was a title or a nom de pièce. The last thing that he did was give her an extra key: to the outside door and his room.
“I think you won’t intrude when I’m sleeping.” She took the keys and hid them in her pants.
Pretty lights in the darkness on her 長衫 accouterment.[xxxi]
She fell asleep and fantasized about prestidigitation on Kowloon Walled City, with lights and opening blood.
Awash in heated light in 2022 Anno Domini, bowed down and closed when the sun whitens them.[xxxii] We can’t rewind we gone too far.[xxxiii]
[i] Fondly Admiring
[ii] Red Star Chinese Cuisine
[iii] Reference to Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
[iv] Sicilian defense, Scheveningen main line
[v] Tom Lehrer, “Lobachevsky”
[vi] Tom Lehrer, “Vatican Rag”
[vii] A reference to Tom Lehrer, “US Marines” and John Lennon's “All We Are Saying is Give Peace a Chance” especially The Peace Choir version of it.
[viii] 不可救药 bù kě jiù yào — can't be saved
[ix] “Community”
[x] Thomas Dolby, “One Of Our Submarines”
[xi] Reference to T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land 2.15
[xii] Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven”
[xiii] 孤陋寡闻 – ignorant and ill-informed
[xiv] Jesus Jones, “Right Here, Right Now”
[xv] Reference to Jesus Jones, “Right Here, Right Now”
[xvi] A reference to Flock of Seagulls, “If I Had a Photograph of You”
[xvii] Reference to R.E.M. “Man On The Moon”
[xviii] Murray Head, “One Night In Bangkok”
[xix] Murray Head, “One Night In Bangkok”
[xx] Jesus Jones, “Right Here, Right Now”
[xxi] Reference to T.S. Eliot, Waste Land 2.7-8
[xxii] Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”
[xxiii] 当机立断.
[xxiv] Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”
[xxv] dé guo qiě guò — drift along
[xxvi] Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”
[xxvii] Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
[xxviii] Salisbury Road.
[xxix] Thomas Dolby, Golden Age of Wireless
[xxx] Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”
[xxxi] Cheongsam
[xxxii] “chinati e chiusi, poi che 'l sol li 'mbianca” Dante, Inferno, 2.128.
[xxxiii] Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star”