Mantis vs. Phantom

Groupthink “Intersections” contribution from our soft-spoken blogster wordsmith and Shanghai music nerd Andy Best. It’s a laowai revenge fantasy gone sci-fi and awry. Witness the birth of the Mantis.

by Andy Best

I didn’t have a plan. I mean, nothing was planned. But when you look back in time everything falls into a straight line so it makes its own sense. I suppose.

Shanghai. New city, new life. A hectic office at odds with my ideal of travelling the world and bumming around. How can you “bum around” with all that red tape? VISA, medical, police registration, residence papers, work permits, multiple contracts, passport I.D. at the hotel and at the bank, random receipts for tax evasion purposes, compulsory social events. Please, make it stop. Then a guy Colin from our induction training suggested we go to this obscure local sports center he’d found up in the ghetto that was Hong Kou district and learn real Chinese kung fu. That’s original. And why is everyone’s kung fu always the real one? Fine, anything would do at that point. Continue reading…

SciFi Sessions: Faded pages torn from old books

by Andy Best

The dirty rain lashed down in solid walls that marched forward in rows. An oppressive heat filled the atmosphere and the gaps between the rainfall were flushed with rolling clouds of steam. The sky above was obscured. Rare breaks were all brown-grey haze and glare. The sound of the water crashing down was one continuous roar as it fell on a sprawling right-angled maze of watery channels, broken only by occasional spurts of gigantic foliage. The maze was punctuated by the looming shadowy outlines of tall rectangular buildings whose details could not be seen through the steam, rain and radiating heat waves.

Continue reading…