Split up before dawn

Author: Du Lengding
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: The protagonists in the stories of this book often possess enviable careers, appearances, wealth, and even misfortunes, yet they are also ordinary people around us—greedy. They confide, and we record, documenting the poppy-like allure of the flower of evil that blooms in the city of desires. For them, a night's performance—is it a poison that tears through the gut or a soul-nourishing soup? Is it justifiable or unforgivable? Beneath the facade of the game, is there still a trace of the sacred? The Buddha says: It cannot be said. Evil exists in the heart of man, just as ugliness exists at the center of the world. What we can do is to do our best to discern, analyze, and judge.
The story of sex and the city/By Du Ruo ONS, full name OneNightStand, literally translates to "a night's performance," referring to the brief, intimate physical contact between two strangers that lasts only for a night. No need to know, no need for responsibility. But in China, it has a more common name—"one-night stand"—a trendy term that has replaced the previous Chinese terms like "adultery, fling, infidelity," etc. However, for some reason, no one doubts the structural legitimacy of the word. This fleeting, usually casual sexual behavior between strangers is even labeled with the concept of "affection" by the passionate Chinese. "Affection" is long-lasting, while "one" is fleeting; "affection" is open and aboveboard, while "night" is ambiguous and murky—doesn’t that contradict itself? Yet, "one night" blinds us. A casual number, a vague concept of time—so rebellion hides behind a facade of respectability. Perhaps, in the world of Chinese, the precise explanation for "one-night stand" should be "one-night sex"—if someone insists on expressing their true feelings, then "one-night sexual affection" would also be acceptable. The verbs attached to "one-night stand" are also worth pondering—"play." To "play one-night stand" seems to require no excessive seriousness, no significant emotional investment, no need for judgment—just pure physical movement, thinking with the lower body, and the fate of being easily bored with the new.
If the Victorians hoped to possess love while avoiding physical intimacy, then modern people long for physical intimacy while avoiding falling in love. As if in an instant, our rules, our beliefs, are stripped away, leaving us...