Shenzheners

The Chinese man got out a napkin and a ballpoint pen from his jacket pocket. He drew a map of China on the napkin and marked Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong on it. Then he pointed with the point of the pen at a place close to Hong Kong and said, "That's where I'm from. A very special city, the youngest city in China. A little fishing village twenty years ago, it's now got a population of more than ten million."

"I didn't know there actually was such a young city in the world," she said.

He glanced over, obviously appreciative of her attention to his word choice. "Almost everyone in that city is an immigrant, just like here in Canada," he said.

She liked the way he said "just like here in Canada," giving her a perspective from which to imagine this youngest of cities. "So where were you born?" she asked, pointing at the napkin.

He tapped China's northeast with the ballpoint pen. "That's where I was born and where I grew up. In an old industrial city shrouded in smog." He paused and said, "I never knew the taste of fresh air until I left."

From Shenzheners by Xue Yiwei 2016. Published by Linda Leith Publishing.