I went to college in the 90s, one year after the Tiananmen Incident. At that time, it was mandatory for first-year college students to go through a military training provided by the army.  I had thought about applying for Beijing University, but decided against it because the military training there lasted one whole year.  I later chose Zhongshan University (Sun Yat-sen University) in Guangzhou, one of the most developed cities in China, where people tended to eschew politics, and started my campus life with a required one-month military training.

One of my recent short stories, “Nobody’s Talking About Falling in Love,” is inspired by that one-month experience of my life.  A story about the friendship between an eighteen-year-old college student and a sergeant. It’s included in a well-reviewed anthology: “One World: A Second Global Anthology of Short Stories.”

Here is an excerpt from “Nobody’s Talking About Falling in Love.”

“The girl was tall and plump, a first-year college student . As required by her university, she and other first-year students had to complete a one-month military training program before school started, in which no other classes would be held except those on ideology and Party history.

It was the third day into training. Her grass-green army jacket – in the biggest size for female students – was tucked into a brown belt and pinched tight on her shoulders and chest. Her pants fitted at the waist but stopped an inch above her ankles. She was the first in her row, arranged from tallest to shortest. There were ten rows in total – all girls – on a campus basketball court, forming a square: Unit 8. In training, boys and girls were separated, boys in odd-numbered, girls even-numbered units. Boys from her class were in Unit 3 and trained at an outdoor stadium. At the end of the program the students would be graded according to performance. If they failed, they’d have to attend next year’s training with freshmen for that year and, later, might have trouble getting a diploma.

It was a hot summer day. The girl and her classmates sweated profusely under the scorching sun but dared not wipe their faces. She looked down and saw beads of sweat on her nose. No doubt she’d get tanned or even burned on her face and neck. A few days earlier she’d had her hair cut to the bottom of her ear lobes to meet army requirements, so it wasn’t long enough to protect her neck. Also, she’d gotten up too late this morning to apply sunblock. She raised her left shoulder slightly to scratch an itchy spot on her cheek, briefly easing her shoulders and bending her knees, but repositioned immediately into attention under a soldier’s gaze – on each corner of the square stood a fully uniformed soldier at attention.

Their sergeant was giving a speech. Tall and barrel-chested, he stood with his feet apart at shoulder-width, his hands behind his back, his army cap covering his forehead and shading half his face. He was said to be a model soldier and the toughest instructor.”

To read the complete story, please visit One World Two at Amazon.