Sun Empire

Author: (English) Ballard, translated by Dong Leshan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Two months later, as Jim was about to set off for England, he came down the gangway of the Arava, his last time stepping on Chinese soil. He recalled Dr. Lunsen's words. Jim wore a silk shirt and a tie, with a gray flannel suit bought from Sincere Company over it, politely waiting for an elderly British couple to descend the wooden stairs. Below them was the Bund in Shanghai, and the bustling night of the city. Tens of thousands of Chinese people crowded the wide streets, squeezed between trams and cars, American jeeps and trucks, rickshaws and tricycles, pushing and shoving, bustling with activity. Together, they watched British and American soldiers entering and leaving the grand hotels on the Bund. At the small pier next to the Arava, under its bow and stern, American sailors disembarked from the battleship anchored in the middle of the river. As soon as they stepped off the landing craft, the Chinese swarmed forward, a host of pickpockets and drivers, prostitutes and bar promoters, vendors of homemade Johnnie Walker whiskey, dealers in gold and opium—all these Shanghainese spirits dressed in black silk, fox fur coats, and splendid attire.