Stories
The Archive
Features, essays, and field notes. An editorial list, not a feed.
Essay
The Book I Would Hand a Foreign Friend
Xia Jianyong’s 庆历四年秋 takes a line every Chinese schoolchild can hum — 庆历四年春,滕子京谪守巴陵郡 — and shows the court, and the office, behind it.
Sept 2026
Essay
The Child Who Only Had to Study
In a northern working-class house, one child is kept away from the world so he can pass exams. The other is sent out to learn it. A reading of chapter 8 of 王医生与张医生.
Shenyang · Sept 2026