a taiwanese take on the mainland

Shanghai already emerged a long time ago as the site of “it’s very modern, they’re progressing quite quickly” being-impressed-with-China’s-capitalism, but it seems that Beijing is quickly taking the lead as the place to party. Jennifer went for a few days a couple of weeks ago and is still in her self-professed mainland craze; and now this from one of my theater friends (notice the line breaks—all your emails end up looking like poetry):


Dear Anya,

我從北京回來
老天
真是好玩呀
海闊天空
房子大
馬路大
吃飯碗大盤子大
講話聲音大
什麼都大
心情也張得開開心心的
每天玩到半夜才回旅館
要不要我們每個禮拜都出去玩玩!?


I’ve come back from Beijing
my god
what a good time [+emphasis particle]
endlessly vast [classical phrase]
the houses are big
the streets are big
when you eat the bowls are big the plates are big
when you speak the sound is big
everything’s big
and my mood expanded too[i]
every day out until the middle of the night before returning to the hotel
let’s go together every week!


[i] lit heart-state also stretched out to be open open heart heart (where open-heart is a phrase for weightless happiness, and reduplication is emphasis)