THE FOREIGN JOURNALIST DID NOT HAVE TO WRITE ANYTHING NEW by Ting Lin

Raised on calcified milk, the students stood under a bridge^[1].
In their hands, blank sheets of paper flutter. Nothing came
of that long season but a few good photographs. How cleanly
their faces fit into the frame of their parents. For thirty four years
there was nothing in between. When I try to fill it in the world
becomes impenetrable. The sparrows, the blackboard paintings,
red jumping rope in the courtyard. The man lying silently
in the snow like an exclamation mark. I wanted to explain
how we grew up but the deadline was up. A bluish tint
to the prints, even as it was there, then.

^[1] The Beijing Sitong Bridge protests took place in 2022.