Homeseeking

by Karissa Chen

But the emperor laughed. What would we possibly gain from this friendship? he asked. We have everything we need right here. We have delicious fruits and beautiful mountains and the most pleasing music in the world. We have wonderful machinery and useful tools and the strongest army. We have gold and fireworks and the most fragrant tea. We have no need to befriend anyone else; what can you teach us that we don’t already know? He sent the pale man away and shut the door to the rest of the world. “But do you know what the rest of the world did, girls?” The girls shook their heads. Apa’s face grew grim. “The rest of the world grew without us. They did it in terrible ways—they conquered other lands and enslaved the bodies of men for labor. They stole from places and used what they stole to build factories and bigger guns and ships. So that one day, when the foreign men returned to our shores, we were unprepared. We had stayed the same while they had become powerful. They wanted our tea and porcelain and they no longer wanted to be friends—they planned to take what they wanted without asking. They tricked us by poisoning us, little by little, with opium. They made us weak. And now they are everywhere, treating us like dogs in our own lands.”