De Taiwanees-Amerikaanse schrijver Pai Hsien-yung werd geboren op 11 juli 1937 in Guilin, Guangxi in China. Zie ook alle tags voor Pai Hsien-yung oo dit blog.
Uit: Crystal Boys (Vertaald door Howard Goldblatt)
„Little Jade, Mousey, and Wu Min were sitting around the table eating and arguing about something. The sight of the food reminded me that I was hungry. Might as well eat something before going to the hospital.When Little Jade saw me he pointed and laughed:
“Here comes another one! What’ll we call him? How about a carp fairy!”
Mousey and Wu Min laughed.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I sat down and slid Little Jade’s bowl and chopsticks over. I quickly shoveled some rice into my mouth. “I think you’re a fox fairy!”
Mousey jumped up and pointed at Little Jade.
“See there, Wu Min and I said you were a fox fairy, but you didn’t believe us. Now it’s unanimous!”
“Okay, okay, then I’m a fox fairy,” Little Jade said as he thumped his chest. “You’re a rat fairy.
And you,” he pointed at Wu Min, “you’re a rabbit fairy.” Then he turned to me. “You’re a carp fairy, the chief’s an old tortoise fairy, and A-xiong’s a gorilla fairy . . . so our ‘den of fairies’ has one of every kind.
Tonight if people come over to gawk at the fairies, we’ll sell tickets at a hundred yuan apiece. If they look too long it’ll be another hundred. That way we won’t have to sell booze to stay in business.” Little Jade snatched Mousey’s chopsticks out of his hand, banged them against the side of his bowl, and sang the children’s song “Two Little Tigers” with new words:
Four little fairies
Four little fairies
All the same height
All the same height
This one has no pecker
That one has no nuts
Isn’t that wonderful
Isn’t that wonderful
We laughed like crazy and joined in the next chorus of our “Fairy Song.”
Pai Hsien-yung (Guilin, 11 juli 1937)