A Cup of Perfect Tea

by Ginger wRong Chen

I am pacing around the house and constantly telling myself “Settle down!” “Easy!” Yet instead, I only feel my throat grows drier; a knot is growing bigger in my stomach, and I check my look over and over again in the mirror for, God knows, how many times already.
Have I got anything right? I’ve tidied up the sofa, the table, the vases on the shelves. I’ve sprayed the mixed aroma of rose and ylang-ylang in every corner of the house, all the places where I suppose me and him will stand, sit, or lie down. And I’ve put on my favorite outfit, the silky one-shoulder draped dress in light blue, if I remember it correctly, he once said light blue is his favorite color.
And the tea I am going to serve is this year’s King of Anxi Tieguanyin. It should be the real deal since it came directly from a wholesome tea farmer in some village in Anxi, Fujian. I remember yesterday how proudly my father told me and my mother that he was finally able to obtain a piece of “the King” and he told the story in such a manner that it is doomed to be awarded “Adventure of the Year” in this family. However, today both my parents are out of town for some colleague’s, can’t remember his or hers, wedding and they are going to be away for the whole weekend. I sure can imagine, when they come home after the wedding, my father is going to be real mad about the missing King, but I don’t care. Every father makes sacrifices on the road of his daughter’s pursuit of romance. Continue reading…

Chinese Tea and the Bone Cup

by Danielle LeClerc

Within the seed of every apricot lies a small, soft kernel. Just a few of these pack enough cyanide to stop your heart in minutes.
Jasmine flowers, a popular Chinese tea ingredient, benefit the immune system and lower cholesterol. Jasmine berries, however contain a powerful neurotoxin.
Goji berry, known in China as gou qi zi and in Europe as wolfberry, has recently gained much attention in the West as a naturopathic herb. In small doses it improves circulation and aides the kidneys and spleen. Higher concentrations were used by Germany to poison Nazi bullets, stopping the hearts of victims with remarkable efficiency. Continue reading…

Mongolian Hooker Knife Fight

Photo: Allenying.com

The bar girls pulled out cleavers out from behind the bar. Obviously a mistake had been made, there was going to be bloodshed.

Hans, the CEO of UniCore was in Shanghai. The man had the uncanny ability to work fourteen hour days, learn Chinese, run a multi-billion dollar operation dealing with metals for cellphone components for all of Asia, and yet he found the time to drag me and my uncle Ross — who was the manager of the company’s mainland China branches — into three day sessions of debauchery. We would not sleep in between these “adventures.” We would finish one night of getting wrecked, have a shower, drink a Red Bull, go to work, then meet up to do it all over again.

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The Box

by W.M. Butler

This place is horrible. I can’t have my baby here. Please don’t let me have my baby here! John! Please! — It’s OK. It’s OK. — No, you’re right, you’re right she makes it more beautiful here. Look at her eyes John they’re so brown and her hair, it’s black just like yours. Her fingers and toes John, all there and so wonderfully pink — John.

“…John.”
“Mr. Mori?”
“Wake up.” Continue reading…

H.A.L. proudly presents: Kelly Tsai live in the ‘Hai!

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Featured H.A.L. Artist: Matthieu Lunard

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The Third Chopstick

The Third Chopstick
A short story by Danielle LeClerc

To: annelsmith@hotmail.com
Thursday, May 13, 3:22am
From: Walt.is.cool@gmail.com
Subject: 489 Wanping Street

Dear Mom,

Here’s some pics of the new place, not bad eh? A 2 bedroom downtown for
$700, you wouldn’t even get half this in Prince Albert.

And how about that view? Pretty great, eh? I’m not saying I don’t miss
seeing the Esso station across the schoolyard from my bedroom window, but
this is Shanghai. The stove’s a bit weird, the only setting it seems to
have is “inferno”; unlike the shower, which has 2 settings: inferno and
arctic, but I’ll figure it out.

 Turns out it was a piece of cake getting the place, the agent set
everything up and sent a really nice girl named Jenny to help me out.
She’s really sweet, you’d like her. Anyway, I’m officially settled now, so
you don’t have anything to worry about. And yes, I’m eating well, they’ve got
this thing here called “Sherpa’s” where they deliver really good healthy food
to your house pretty much any time of day.

Don’t worry about me. I’m 34, I’ll be fine.

Say hi to Dad.
Love,

Walter

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History of a Future

Renée Reynolds first appeared in Party Like It’s 1984 and, because she is just so darn talented, we decided to include her in our new book. This second publication from HAL is a collection of short stories that are all about the bad things that make life in China kinda worth it! Sadly, you don’t get to see inside the book yet but if you check out Renée’s wonderful poem below you’ll know why she’s in the new book! We think Renée’s poem is almost as keen as Renée herself!

If you’re like us and can’t get enough of this girl’s awesomeness then check out the rest of her work on HAL as well as her new story Satellite American on Unshod Quills.

By Renée Reynolds

Old people walking backward
Posing brides in funeral white
Styrofoam swan feed
Root-ward growing treetops
Million-dollar watches that don’t keep time Continue reading…

Author Spotlight: Miodrag Kojadinovic

H.A.L. is proud to present Miodrag Kojadinovic, one of the many great authors appearing in the follow-up short story collection to Party like it’s 1984. With HAL’s first collection you were given a look at life behind the bamboo curtain. Now, HAL wants to show you a different side of life in the People’s Republic of – namely, what goes on beneath the sheets and behind locked doors. All the naughty bits. This November will mark the release of the new book, along with another amazing launch party that will rival last year’s glamorous bash at River South. So get ready for dirty hook-ups in the Shanghai Metro, funny money, grifters, sex with big plastic bags, and, in Miodrag’s case, questionable activities involving bunny rabbits! While you won’t get to see the actual stories from the book until the release, we can give you a little taste of the talent.

Without further adieu, here is a sample of the excellence you will see in the new book!

Miodrag Kojadinović is a Canadian-Serbian dual national, poet, prose writer, journalist, translator, interpreter, and photographer. His 200+ pieces of writing have been published in English, Serbian, Dutch, Russian, Hungarian, and Slovene in Canada, Serbia, the US, France, Russia, China, England, Holland, Slovenia, India, Croatia, and Montenegro and he has appeared in three documentaries shown at festivals (of which one was specifically about Kojadinović). Continue reading…

News: Unshod Quills releases Issue Two 9/15/11

Superman Down - Photography - Jillian Brall of Unshod Quills

We at HAL are happy and proud to inform you that our sexy sister site in Portland has released the second edition of Unshod Quills, containing art, fiction, videos, and more; all the finest in hip literature in pandemic format. A good amount of HAL authors are including in this issue (you remember the China-US cross-writing exercise we did at Groupthink? You see people, there’s a plan with everything we do, promise!), look out for Jason Lasky, Lucinda Holmes, Ginger wRong Chen and Catherine Platt, just to mention a few. Oh, and your favorite HAL editor debuts as a photo artist. In all modesty as always, needless to say. Big congratulations to Dena and UQ, HAL loves ‘ya!

B. Continue reading…