One afternoon close to dinnertime, a child sat cross-legged on her parents’ bed drawing on the coverlet with a red permanent marker. The coverlet was patterned with pink and yellow roses. The child drew three large red dots and was mesmerized by the ink soaking into the fabric. When she had finished, she capped the marker and went into the master bathroom. She pulled a tissue from the box on the back of the toilet and sat down on the toilet seat. Spreading the tissue on her lap, she uncapped the marker, drew three large red dots and let the ink bleed through the thin paper onto her skin. There weren’t any sounds coming from the kitchen. Quietly, she blew her nose in the tissue, crumpled it up and placed it in the wastebasket beside the toilet.
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The child became a painter, and then a teacher. She taught painting lessons to university students and children.
When were you afraid? the painter asked the boy. The boy’s name was Rou Rou. He looked down in concentration. Can you describe it? Something that scared you?
The painter had learned to warm up new students before they ever picked up a paintbrush by asking them personal questions. The questions were basic: What’s your happiest memory? What colors feel happy to you? She tried to keep it fun, like a game. She didn’t want them to think painting was just a technical exercise. Making her lessons friendly and relaxed was difficult enough on screens, with her in the United States and her students in Shanghai.
Close your eyes and try picturing a time when you were afraid, the painter said. Are there any objects or colors that pop into your mind?
The boy squinched up his face and said, When Nancy Pelosi came and we had to stay inside.
The painter could quickly look up the event on her computer without even averting her eyes. In August, 2022, the United States Speaker of the House visited Taiwan. In response, the PLA began joint naval and air force exercises around the island, including live-fire drills and missile tests.
Our walls are white, Rou Rou said. So white, I guess? Who’s Nancy Pelosi?
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Recently, the painter noticed a report in India Today that the Qinhu Bay Forest Animal Kingdom in Taizhou, China was caught exhibiting Chow Chow puppies dyed black and orange to look like tigers. The zoo’s online promotional materials showed the animals in a pen, captioned with our tigers are huge and very fierce!
A visitor uploaded a video of the animals barking and the news spread. Millions shared outrage and jokes. Confronted, the zoo apologized, claiming they lacked zoo-like animals to exhibit. According to zoo officials it was just a gimmick. The animals were marketed as dog tigers and not tiger tigers. It was all done professionally and no animals were harmed.
No one does counterfeit like China, a news anchorwoman said. It’s just China being China.
If someone were to look up the incident, there is a picture of a smiling woman with long hair hugging one of the dog tigers. She is wearing a white jacket that could be part of a staff uniform. Was she a spokesperson for the zoo? Was she the professional who dyed the dogs? India Today didn’t say. Who’s to say whether the zoo dyed the dogs in order to deceive visitors? If you didn’t know a lot about tigers, you might think orange with black stripes, furry, four legs, tiger. The painter couldn’t believe that anyone had been convinced the dogs were tigers. She couldn’t believe the zoo thought it could convince anyone that the dogs were tigers. Everyone knew what a tiger looks like. Surely, there was no one on the planet who would not recognize a tiger when they saw one.
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The painting was to be four feet wide and eight feet high, and it was to represent a bed sheet hung by its corners, patterned with pink and yellow roses. The actress had seen such a painting framed and leaning against a wall at a party at a famous director’s house in Los Angeles. She couldn’t stop thinking about it and wanted one of her own. She was beautiful and had a well-established career, and could finally take the time to properly furnish her remodeled east L.A. home. The director gave the actress the painter’s name. The actress contacted the painter and they agreed on a price. The actress selected a vintage fabric for the motif and had the sample sent to the painter’s studio, and the painter travelled by train to a nearby city and bought a roll of heavy cotton rag paper, paint and supplies.
The painter estimated that it would take about two months to finish. She couldn’t afford for it to take much longer. It was only a best guess, because she had made the director’s painting many, many years ago and had forgotten how long it took to make a painting like that.