Food and Memory
by Hong Ying
Translated by George Dudley
On a small slope above the south bank of the Yangtze River in Chongqing, there is a 13-unit housing compound where 13 families lived, sharing two kitchens, one large, one small. My family’s cooking stove was in the large kitchen, on the side which bordered the central courtyard. The lighting in the kitchen had always been very dim, until one day my father knocked out a window in the wall…