we slept sideways on purple satin sheets.
we read bedtime stories about men who were killed in their sleep.
we ate carrots shaped like wisemen.
we drank green tea and pretended to stop brushing our teeth.
we wrote poetry behind unmarked doors in the hutong.
we had sesame buns and mongolian yogurt brought to us in cricket cages each morning.
we told anyone who disagreed with us "you are sick, comrade" and brainwashed them.
we wore flipflops in the shower.

it was the chairman mao suite, circa 1952.