Isham Cook

Originally from Chicago, author Isham Cook has been based in Beijing since 1994

Posts by Isham Cook

Post
The sexpat (part two)

In search of a happy ending

THIS SHORT STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON ISHAM COOK’S BLOG

 

Back to Fengtai in Beijing. I finally come across a new prospect, a zhongyi clinic, the characters standing for traditional Chinese massage, a type of massage I don’t like. Done over the clothes with rough pinching, pushing and pounding, it has to be the most unsensual massage ever invented.

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Post
The sexpat (part one)

Setting out to visit every massage parlour in China

THIS SHORT STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON ISHAM COOK’S BLOG

 

A red neon sign so far in the distance it could be a firefly. I too am a fly and it pulls me irresistibly toward it, for it is in the shape of a suspected character, and like most shop signs that consist of a single character, it is probably zu, meaning “foot.” While zu might resemble a standing or crouching man, the upper square being his head, the image is in fact thought to have originally depicted a footprint.

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