![\"neon.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stevepeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/neon.jpg?w=1000\")
<\/p>\n
We stopped at the little convenience store\/fried chicken shack for provisions. The man sitting behind the counter started speaking to my wife. To my amazement, I could follow the conversation.<\/p>\n
Man: Are you from blah-blah village?<\/em><\/p>\n Lao Po: Yes.<\/em><\/p>\n Man: Is your father\u2019s name \u2026.?<\/em><\/p>\n Lao Po: Yes.<\/em><\/p>\n Man: Are your brothers \u2026.?<\/em><\/p>\n Lao Po: Yes (getting excited).<\/em><\/p>\n It turns out the bookstore, a few tables under a large blue tent, is run by a father and son from the same area as my wife\u2019s village. The father went to high school with my wife\u2019s father, and the son with her two brothers. They have been here two years and we passed like proverbial ships in the night.<\/p>\n Of course, this called for a celebration of some sort. A lunch was arranged. The twins, one working across the city, made the trek to dine with new-found old friends. (aside:<\/em> Chinese men are more physically affectionate than western men. I will never get use to walking arm-in-arm with a man.<\/span> I will never get use to walking arm-in-arm with a man while sober.)<\/p>\n We ate, we drank. Then the six of us returned to Chateau Stevo<\/em>, and crammed into the shoebox-like living room, watching a Jackie Chan movie on television while eating endless oranges and drinking countless cups of tea.<\/p>\n New friends from old friends. In a nation of 1.4 billion people, in a city of 12 million, in a community of 50,000, people reconnect. Wonders never cease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a small world, as the syrupy song proclaims.<\/p>\n My lao po and I were returning from a restaurant a week or two back when we learned some surprising news. We have become incapable of cooking for ourselves. Either laziness or exhaustion, or a little of both are the explanations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,35,5],"tags":[97,323,587,701],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-culture","category-life","tag-classmates","tag-jackie-chan","tag-new-friends","tag-old-friends"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n