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Showing posts from May 10, 2020

What price to pay?

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Lin Biao CC Wiki commons Life will not answer to reason. And meaning is too young a thing to have much power over it.   Richard Powers Overstory Loc 2075 A foreigner with a little language Is still a novelty in   Hangzhou in the 90s. So much so that I   Bargain a pair of gloves,   For a knock-down price. My Chinese friend is Miffed when he goes back   The next night but Can’t do so well. “How come you sold it   Cheeper to the foreigner?” He asks and is answered With a shrug. I buy a plaque of Mao But pass over a similar Memento of Lin Biao - The official villain of   Modern Chinese history.   It costs 5 times more. Later that day we Visit Lin Biao’s   Holiday compound.   Unused for years It feels like a wealthy   European suburb. Acres of manicured   Forest with several   Two storied villas   Dotted about. Delightful in their   Colours and porticoes But eerie in their emptiness. Entering one villa we Go behind ...