MY HAREM IN THE KARAOKE HALL
Kaifaqu, Shandong, Chiner

Last night, my mom and I invited all the Chinese English teachers I worked with last year out for a dinner at my friend's aunt's new restaurant. Most of these teachers were in their early twenties and beautiful. All of them were female. Cramming all nine of us into a taxi van, we joked that I was an emperor with his entourage of concubines.

After eating until we were stuffed, we retired to the karaoke bar downstairs and my old friend Olivia pushed me into singing a very mumbly version of "I am a fish," the only Chinese song I can sing besides "Shanghai night". The rest of them sang and sang and danced, even though we drank only Coca-cola the whole night through.

Though my colleagues said they wanted to return at 9 so they could get enough rest for their early morning (7:15) classes, we stayed out until 11. When we got back to the school gate, the vice headmaster was engaged in some sort of confrontation with a young man and my colleagues freaked. They had the taxi driver turn around and drive slowly down the road. When we returned five minutes later, the headmaster was still there and we decided to get out anyway. He interogated the taxi driver and my friends looked worried. We acted guilty, so he presumed we were. But the question is: why did grown women have to worry about being out "late" on a school night? Such is the life in China.