| They Say the Moon Is Smaller in China One night in October 1986, standing in the sulfurous glow of a streetlight in downtown Dalian, munching dry moon cakes with my newfound friend Danjiong, I looked up and saw the full moon. "How do you say 'full moon' in Chinese?" I asked. He got all red in the face, started talking before he had a chance to swallow, spewed moistened crumbs of moon cake toward my face. "In 1969 we were told China would be the first to land a man on the moon—we should all be proud. We weren't allowed to know nothing about the American space program. Until seven years later. When I found out, I couldn't believe it. I lost my youth!" |