Two panoramas from spring festival travels

Two landscapes, courtesy of the iPhone's "panorama" function.

One is a stretching maize field in Anhui province, among China's poorest and most historic rural settings. To the left, one of the many graves that pepper the land, mounds of earth around which the newly budding crops circle respectfully. Straight ahead, almost too low to be visible, a hamlet of brick houses and dirty courtyards filled with waddling ducks and barking dogs.

An original poem for those in a long-distance relationship – by Stephen Nashef

They lived at the antipodes

and could not cross from their extremes

the distance filled with countries, seas

so agreed to meet up in their dreams.

The flirtatious perils of language tutors – a prose poem by Stephen Nashef

“What time would you like to connect tomorrow?”

He said it with a suggestive phrasing (untranslatable to English) as though the matter had already been decided. He knew that, in the language he was using, “to connect” could mean “to meet” – as in “What time shall we meet for class tomorrow?”

However, “to connect” could also mean “to fuck” – as in “What time shall we fuck tomorrow?”

A Q&A with a fake Foxconn worker

On October 9th 2012, 30 year old Li Liao reported for his first day’s work at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, southern China. The behemothian electronics contract manufacturer, which makes our iPhones, Kindles and Wiis, provides a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of poor Chinese. It was also the centre of controversy after a spate of worker suicides in 2010.

In which the limits of our hero’s stomach are tested, and he has a nap

Ed: Previously on The Dumpling Party: Our fearless narrator vanquished an unsavoury surprise at breakfast, daringly negotiated conversations with his Chinese host family, and braved the villainous monotony of shopping at The MegaStore. And now, the shocking conclusion you've been waiting for ...