HAL/MALA poetry slam winner Obi with her trophy and hongbao.
by Obi
I kick the rocks along the pavement
thinking
there is no way I can belong here
Me.
Dark skin.
Large eyes.
A figure of one not belonging to a 28-year old woman.
They move slowly
the rocks
my mind rapidly moving
how did I get here?
by Greg Baines
They are in lines stretching back north into the old station area. The first level still goes by its old name, Shanghai South Station. I’m on level three, Sky South, in charge of people coming in via airship. The lines are swelling, almost overwhelming. Comrade Zhen is jittery. He’s fought his way through walls of flesh to call more people into work.
I have processed hundreds of people over the last few days. I have seen some people with their whole lives on their backs, dangled precariously under their arms, lives downloaded onto memory chips. I see some whose faces are stained with tears, others who look relieved to be here.
by Dena Rash Guzman
That gypsy looking woman, that squat, frog faced thing
with her 25 boxes of shoes stacked tight and neat
on the train – she saw us joking about her.
She knew. “Touch them. I dare you just to walk over
and touch her shoes.” Bally.
Fake market bound, and she had lugged
them onto the Metro all alone like an ant at a picnic
with an entire chocolate bar. You pushed
me just a little. “Touch them.” I could tell
she’d have shanked me right there
if I’d dared. Maybe this was honest work, Continue reading…
by Katrina Hamlin
She looked up from the pocket dictionary. Hard, sleeper; “Ying, chang. Ying chang. Yingchang.”
The ticket seller looked back at her. “Yingchuang?”
“Ying, chang.”
The next lady in the queue repeated her, concentrating on each sound. “Ying chan.”
An impatient teenager behind her hollered, “Yinchuan,” and then in ragged unison the entire queue shouted, “Yinchuan.”
Relieved, the girl thanked them and smiled. “Yes, a hard sleeper.”
"Swimming #1" by Monika Lin
by David Perry
FROM THE BUDGET WORMHOLE VISITATIONS GUIDE TO EARTH PRIME
ENCODED IN THE SUNNY MEADOW FARMS IN THE AURORA ARM OF THE HAIER APPLIANCES & PLASMA MANAGEMENT GALAXY, UNIVERSE E1
TRANSFERRED TO THE SANCTIFIED MULTIVERSE HIVEMIND IN 349 NEWTIMES (2512 AD/OLD EARTH PRIME RECKONING)
SHANGHAI OVERVIEW
As difficult as it is to believe today, this quiet fishing village was once a bustling megalopolis. Today, little above the waves remains visible, but at the height of its glory the original Shanghai was the financial and entertainment capital of the People’s Republic of China, not to mention the de facto money and pop-culture heart of the Earth Prime post-Water War era’s Han-dominated globe.
by Greg Baines
My first glimpse of Yu Ting, actually, was on a grainy web cam that was pointed at her as she squashed into the wall dressed in some black lacey fuck-me lingerie. She paned around the room she lived in and I saw her mum crumpled and asleep next to her.
Her house was forty one square metres in total and mine was about eighty but I did share with a French girl who didn’t believe in sex before marriage. But when she moved in I wasn’t in love with Yu Ting.
Yu Ting now ‘feels-close-enough-to-get closer-and-show-more-commitment’ (go to bed), but the French girl and her unemployed mother have forced us into public parks at odd hours hiding from people doing Taichi to grope and get our hands tangled in each other’s clothes and to avoid guys with uniforms and whistles roaming around killing pleasure.
Half of her thinks that I am, of course, some no-good-dirty-foreigner-who-will-fuck-anything-that-moves and say any ‘sweet-words’ to any girl to fuck her so when I told her I’d never heard of “couples cafés” she slapped me and told me I was a rotten egg and I’d probably fucked many girls in them. Continue reading…
Jean-Louis Wolff and Jeong-Hyun Lee have been shooting together for six years. With a focus on fashion and editorial photography, they also maintain a flow of fresh ideas with personal and fine art projects. While working together in Seoul, something clicked and the duo was formed. By 2004, Jeong-Hun and Jean-Louis had set up a new base-studio in Shanghai. Since, they have had advertising contracts with Shanghai Tang, Nike, Coca-Cola, and Gore-Tex, as well as contributing regularly to Modern Weekly, China Vogue, and Elle. In January 2010, they relocated to Berlin.
See more at their website.
by Mark Talacko
Have all our guests arrived? inquired P’an Chin-lien.
Xochiquetzal and Kurukulla just arrived, making 29. I’m sure we can expect Aphrodite soon; the sea was seen churning and foaming off of Chong Ming.
Remember to seat Astarte and Ishtar at different tables. We don’t want a scene like at Luamereva’s last year in Cocody.
It was P’an’s turn to host la fêtes des déesses, an annual gathering of the world’s love, sex and fertility goddesses during which they replenished their powers by feasting upon the sexual energy of mortals. As goddess of brothels, promiscuity and general lasciviousness, P’an knew that nothing says sex better in Chinese than Shanghai.
by Carrie Sanders
I had the best intentions when I applied to teach English in China. I envisioned rapt students, heartfelt cultural exchange, making a difference. But, as with most things in my life, I was just too damn earnest. I am a person that believes infomercials and PowerPoint presentations. I am a person that thinks the best will happen, and because of this I am always early, overdressed, and embarrassingly eager.
Lacey had no such motivation. The China program was just one of many she had lined up. She was an International Studies Major at Georgetown, and her schedule for the last 2 years was just one foreign exchange program after another. After the summer in China, she was going straight to Cairo for a semester. She had spent her senior year in France, and last summer in a program in Guatemala. Though she had traveled the world, Lacey seemed to have never learned much from her adventures. It all seemed to be just scenery for her own international booze cruise. She brought a photo album from home as a teaching tool, and page after page was Lacey in a foreign bar, Budweiser in one hand, her other flashing a meaningless “V” of peace.
A fortnightly meeting of locals, expats, despots, sexpots, hipsters, and wannabe literati.
Aspiring writers of Shanghai congregate with HAL to drink, be merry and talk about the written word. The meetings center around original writings on a pre-chosen theme, genre or topic assigned in advance by HAL. Authors are given the opportunity to present their writing in a friendly and encouraging environment.
Works of particular merit are harmonized and published online here.
party like it's 1984 - short stories from the peoples' republic of - A collection of stories from authors who never rotated back to the real world
Middle Kingdom Underground - Stories of what lies below.
Click the book above to find out where HAL publications are available.
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