Characters Wanted: Enter Our Short Story Contest

Eggs hit the wok and explode into yellows and whites, roadside breakfast outside the abortion clinic.

Weibo user @ginger_煎饺 sent us this:

In 2012 I moved into hutong, and then a rat, a dog, two squirrels, and a family of bugs moved in with me, most of them uninvited. Now that the drum tower area is going to be demolished I feel sad. It was the quietest and happiest days of my life.

Second of three from Weibo user @林卓枢:

Hong kong. 10am. Coffee shop. Suits. Construction. Calming tea. Marc Jacobs. Old hands. Hair gel. Slumping shoulders. One smile. Chinese man.

Meri Joswiak emailed us this entry:

The 104 chugged, exhaled to a steamy halt in front of me. I'll just walk. So what if I'm in heels; I'd have to cross the footbridge anyway.

From Not There's Jonathan Heeter (@Jonathan_Heeter on Twitter):

Absinthe, Korean Girlz, Broken Sandals, guitar, old Yugongyishan, Makisupa Policeman. Good times in pre Olympic Beijing.

Weibo user @LuHai_Liang (Disclosure: Luhai is currently interning at the Beijinger, so he won't be winning this contest!):

An Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman walk into a bar. Then a Welshman hurriedly runs in and says stop the joke, you've forgotten me! The rest of the participants glare at him before all involved dissolve into a giant, quivering question mark.

TheBeijinger.com user orangeleg:

A spaceship from the future lands in Beijing. Inside is someone who looks Chinese. But he speaks with no words and proffers only one message before he dies: "Less more need..."

http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2013/02/21/stranger-short-fiction-enter-our-story-contest#comment-605633

TheBeijinger.com user Helga Tiger:

I walk past Lao She’s memorial, Mei Lanfang’s house, Qi Baishi’s museum. Everyone has lived here some time or other. Nobody dies in Beijing.

http://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2013/02/21/stranger-short-fiction-enter-our-story-contest#comment-605540

And the third of three from Wall Street Journal editor Carlos Tejada (@CRTejada on Twitter):

February explosions. Fireworks, and gutter oil.

First of three from Wall Street Journal editor Carlos Tejada (@CRTejada on Twitter):

Audi A6, fender nudging my bike? Keying is inevitable, comrade, like your mistress's photos on Weibo.

Twitter entry from @IesGlobal:

A budding Beijinger belatedly arrives, boisterous and bedazzled, into a busily bustling Beijing; he's Bagou bound. Blimey...

As the old woman from Gaomiaocun sat in the spring sun looking into the baby's blue eyes, she realized that events of 50 years were both profound & an exercise in futility.

Splintered chopsticks cracked the flesh; it hissed and bled grease and reused oil. And there it died on his plate.

Dirt clung to their fingernails and wouldn't wash off; still they tunneled each day without fail, through clumps of soil and crowds men.