We're finishing up our run of chengyu with a few idioms for lovers, and then back to something completely different next month. This one is for all the mandarin ducks.

• 一见钟情 yījiànzhōngqíng – Love at first sight. Also connected is 一见如故 yījiànrúgù for that feeling when you meet someone like you’re old friends

• 擦肩而过 cājiānérguò – To brush shoulders but pass each other by. For missed connections, or when you’ve known someone a long time before falling for them

• 爱屋及乌 àiwūjíwū – Love me, love my dog. Although technically replace “me” with “my house”, and “dog” with “the crow [living in the rafters]”

A PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES FROM OUR FRIENDS AT SHANGHAI STREET STORIES

Family history of the first gaokao after the Cultural Revolution – by Karoline Kan

For years, I despised my father. In my eyes, he was the most irresponsible dad in the world. He wasn’t earning money to support us. He didn’t enjoy family gatherings, and was always the first to leave the table. He didn’t care whether his kids were happy in school or not, but would be angry if we didn’t perform as well as he expected. He often quarreled with my mother, for reasons I didn’t understand.

“Who can you blame? It’s your own fate!” My mother would shout at him. Father would just stay silent, turn to the other side of the room and light a cigarette, while my mother again repeated the story from more than thirty years ago which in her mind led to father’s bitterness.

完璧归赵 wánbìguī Zhào – return to its owner

完璧归赵 (wánbìguī Zhào) is literally "return the jade disc to Zhao", and means to return something to its rightful owner. As always, there's a (somewhat overwrought) story behind it:

A precious jade disc (the 和氏璧 héshìbì) was stolen from the state of Chu and sold to the state of Zhao. In 283 BC, King Zhaoxiang of Qin offered 15 cities to the state of Zhao in exchange for the jade disc. Zhao minister Lin Xiangru was dispatched to take the jade to Qin. He handed over the disc, but when it became clear that the King of Qin would not uphold his side of the bargain, he claimed that the jade had an imperfection.

Photos by Christopher Cherry, with an introduction by Sascha Matuszak