Model Communes Are The Ones Where The

It Used To Happen In Villages And Towns In China That They Would Have - I Guess You'd Call Them Beauty Contests - Where All Of The Women Of A Particular Village Or Town Would Be Seated Behind These Screens Or Curtains With Only Their Feet Showing.

Mama Used To Tell Us A Story About A Cicada Sitting High In A Tree. It Chirps And Drinks In Dew, Oblivious To The Praying Mantis Behind It. The Mantis Arches Up Its Front Leg To Stab The Cicada, But It Doesn't Know An Oriole Perches Behind It. The Bird Stretches Out Its Neck To Snap Up The Mantis For A Midday Meal, But Its Unaware Of The Boy Who's Come Into The Garden With A Net. Three Creatures—the Cicada, The Mantis And The Oriole—all Coveted Gains Without Being Aware Of The Greater And Inescapable Danger That Was Coming.

Our Words Had To Be Circumspect. We Could Not Write Anything Too Negative About Our Circumstances. This Was Tricky, Since The Very Form Of A Married Woman's Letter Needed To Include The Usual Complaints -- That We Were Pathetic, Powerless, Worked To The Bone, Homesick, And Sad. We Were Supposed To Speak Directly About Our Feelings Without Appearing Ungrateful, No-account, Or Unfilial.

I Am An Eighth Chinese, And I Come From A Large Chinese-american Family In Los Angeles.

People Come In And Out Of Our Lives, And The True Test Of Friendship Is Whether You Can Pick Back Up Right Where You Left Off The Last Time You Saw Each Other.