#China 

A tiny window which presents the world to you as it happens.

It doesn’t look...

Real. 

Whatever that means. 

You've seen so many movies, videos, artificial patterns of light and colour, the word has lost it's meaning. 

You check the caption just to make sure it isn’t an AI generated image. All you find is 

You see concrete and glass twisted into impossible shapes.

Highways that look like colossal, asphalt entities.

You see so many windows. 

You think to yourself how someone could spend a lifetime counting them, and still not finish.

You grew up in China. But when you see images of it through your screen, it seems almost alien. 

Everything appears appears distant, unfamiliar — like strange landscapes flitting by a train window. 

This reminds you of something you've heard before, about the uncanny valley.

You wonder if a place can evoke the same phenomenon: 

These videos of China certainly make you uneasy.

You imagine all the strange images of China that other people might glimpse. 

You keep scrolling.

You see a video of someone touring the city Chongqing. 

The tourist in the video walks to the end of a street, and shows how there is another street, ten levels beneath the one he's on.

You begin to see how the city itself is built like one of it’s skyscrapers, levels upon levels - 

an infinite regress of surfaces. 

You think to yourself how this app is the same, how everything you see is a surface. 

You wonder if below all those levels, past all the surfaces, you can ever reach the unknown core of the city. 

You keep scrolling.

You see a 42-story building on fire in Hong Kong. 

You remember this building. You’ve been past it a few times. 

Somehow, the thought that it no longer exists doesn’t take shape. It’s still here, right in front of you. 

On your screen.

You think about how beautiful the embers look as they drift down from the sky. 

You think of what happens to these videos, after someone decides that they are no longer relevant (popular), and they get taken off the main feed. 

You don’t like the idea of something existing so permanently. You really just want to experience these specific moments in time, and not have these images remain, other than in the memories of those who had been there, and had paid attention. 

But insisting on not this makes you seem odd, a little unstable.

You tighten your grip on the rectangle. You prod it’s surface with your thumb.

You remember a dream you had recently about going back to China. 

You went to visit Guangzhou- the city where you grew up. 

In the place where your house used to be, there were apartments.

You recognised nothing.

You quickly realised that these buildings were cardboard cutouts. 

You pushed one over with you hand.

Under the skyscraper, tucked away in a small alleyway, was something you recognised. 

A store that sold skewers of meat.

It was grimy and small, and the shopkeeper stared at you funny.

But at least it was untouched by strange algorithms and devices.

This was real. At least to you it was.

You sat down and ate a skewer.

You want to find that place from your dream

So you keep scrolling.

Your battery runs out and the screen goes dark.