Sun and Moon - The Presidential Election of 2040

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Yay we passed 300 posts! Most of the next few will be story updates. Here's a hint of what they're going to be about:

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

April 28, 2017 - JHU Homewood Campus, Baltimore, Maryland

The sky was blue, with intense streaks of red and orange as the sun began to set below the brick-and-white buildings that dotted the campus. White cirrus clouds danced across this technicolor canvas. On the surface, a light breeze blew, smelling sweet with flowers and fun as it blew through my hair, making it move like ocean hair. I took a deep breath. The air, as I expected, was crisp and fresh. Spring had finally arrived.

How appropriate that today was the first day of Spring Fair! Ah, Spring Fair. Every year, the university holds this carnival on campus, complete with food stands, rides, pop-up shops, petting zoos, and even a beer garden. The highlight of every Spring Fair is the concert that’ll happen tonight. Last year, we got the Chainsmokers, and nobody batted an eye. This year we’re getting Steve Aoki, and everybody’s losing their mind.

Each Spring Fair was our annual respite from a semester of exams and suffering. This year, it doubled up as a distraction from the orange buffoon sitting in the White House. But politics was neither here or there. This weekend, all we cared about was how to eat and have fun. As I watched my fellow students walk back and forth between the different stalls, holding chicken kabobs on one hand and liter-sized cups of juice in the other while chatting with each other, I smiled.

I realized that I never felt so good this semester. All semester long I was grinding out my twenty-one credits as I prepared to graduate, all while worrying about the future of this country. But Spring Fair was all about enjoying the simpler things in life. Fun. Food. Friends.

Right now, I was sitting at one of many wooden tables on the Freshman Quad with my senior friends, enjoying what was our last Spring Fair. On my right was Melissa Michova, my partner in crime for these four years, who was currently looking at her phone. Maybe she was reading from the electronic Quran Isaac sent her after she converted. I chuckled. I technically won the bet I made with him, as she did many of the Islamic practices for most of the semester, from reading the Quran to praying towards Mecca. She even showed up at a few of the JHU Muslim Association meetings. It was a good time, all things considered, even as she lapsed more and more as the semester wore on.

And speaking about Isaac, here he was, my friend and rival, sitting on the other side of the table while sipping on a cup of Pepsi that, according to him, was spiked with two shots of Svedka. He occasionally eyed at Melissa’s phone, maybe trying to figure out which of Allah’s words Melissa was internalizing this time. He was also smiling. He was kind like that, despite his sometimes gruff exterior.

Sitting to my left was a third friend of mine, Victor Pan. A lanky 22-year old Chinese international student, he also said nothing, just looking at the kids walking on the Freshman Quad. He didn’t talk much at all, in fact, especially with strangers. He was very smart though. One of the many biomedical engineering and comp-sci double majors at this school, nary a day went by where he wasn’t working in some lab doing some crazy sh**t. But hidden by this exterior of success and grit was a sensitive interior, one he only showed to friends like me.

Bored, I turned towards Victor. “I was your first American friend, was I?”

“I think so,” Victor said. “I think you were actually.”

“You only hung out with other international students before?”

He chuckled. “Only Chinese kids,” he said. “I don’t think I spoke to any of the Turkish students.”

“Hey,” Isaac said, looking up from his phone, “wasn’t I your first American friend?”

“That is completely wrong,” I said. “You’re like his tenth or twentieth American friend. I definitely introduced you to him, so I was first.”

“She’s right,” Victor said, smiling.

Isaac tried to think of a response when we noticed a pair of girls walking out of the Fresh Food Cafe (the main student cafeteria on this campus). I recognized one of them immediately: Amber, sporting her usual flame of hair dyed a deep shade of, er, amber. She was walking with her Georgetown friend, Deneb. Like the other kids walking around, they carried an air of carefreeness with them, as they should on this beautiful spring day. The two were holding hands; in their free hands, they carried cardboard to-go boxes, which I found strange, given the sheer abundance of good food today. It kind of made me sad, knowing that they chose to forgo the legendary “chicken on stick” or authentic North Carolina barbecue for more pedestrian fare.

In time, they noticed us sitting at the table. The two made a turn as climbed up the hill, smiling and waving as they reached the top.

“Hey what you guys been up to?” Amber said as she and Deneb put their boxes on our table.

“Oh, nothing,” I said. Isaac, on his side of the table, scooted a bit to the side to make room for the two freshmen.

“We’ve just been having fun in the sun,” Melissa said, tossing her hair. “What you’ve been doing?”

I interjected. “I see you got food,” I said, looking at their boxes quizzically.

“We didn’t want to wait in line,” Amber said. “Deneb here, this crazy girl wanted to try all the foods, but if you look around you can see why we chose otherwise.”

I did as she told and looked around. Even at this late hour, most of the stands had crazy-long lines. I felt sorry for the people who will be disappointed once the stands eventually close down for the night.

“I know,” Deneb said, pouting as she opened her box of food. “I wanted to try the chicken on a stick everyone’s been talking about.”

“Chicken on stick,” I corrected, “not chicken on a stick. The lack of the indefinite article makes a difference.”

“I don’t think there is,” Victor said, so quietly that I think only I could hear him. “I tried both and I think the chicken on a stick is better.”

Heretic, I thought.

“So anyways, hi I’m Deneb Luna and this is my friend Amber,” she said. “You might’ve seen her around campus - she’s very obvious - but you probably don’t know me since I’m from Georgetown.”

“Hi I remember you from DemCon!” Melissa said, smiling and putting her hand on my shoulder. “Do you remember me? I’m Melissa and this is my friend, President Crystal Sun!”

“Ha I remember both of you!” Deneb said, returning the favor with an even bigger smile. I felt that if you put both Deneb and Melissa in a room, that room will promptly explode. Good thing we were outside, where their energy was being absorbed by the cool air around us.

Deneb then turned towards Isaac. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“Hi, I’m Isaac Hassan,” he said, “nice to meet you. Are you both freshmen?”

“Yes,” Amber said, “we’re both freshmen. I go here and Deneb goes to Georgetown.”

“Ah nice,” Isaac said, “I know some friends who go there too.”

But I don’t think Deneb heard that though. Before Isaac could finish his sentence, she had turned her attention completely to Victor.

“What’s your name?” she said, almost startling Victor, who had tried to avoid the conversation by burying himself in his phone.

“V-Victor,” he stammered.

“Victor?” she said. “That’s such a cute name. Just like you. Do you know how cute you are?”

That threw me off. I turned to look at Victor, who was getting flustered. His cheeks were turning tomato-red. “Thanks?” he said weakly.

I then turned to look at Amber and Isaac, who were both looking at the scene with a combination of surprise and horror. Amber, at least, straightened her posture, as if to signal that she’s got this.

“Deneb,” she said, “I know that you think it’s flattering, but you can’t just go around and tell every Asian man you meet that he’s cute or hot or whatever.”

“I know,” Deneb said, “but...but okay.” She turned towards Victor. “Sorry for saying that.”

“It’s okay,” Victor said, smiling weakly yet still visibly flustered.

“But,” Deneb muttered, “I have to say, he does look like Big Bang’s G-Dragon.”

I couldn’t help but laugh inside, and I looked at Victor, trying to process what Deneb had said. I never thought about Victor looking like G-Dragon, the leader of the Korean boy band Big Bang. Curious, I took out my phone to compare and contrast the two faces.

Now that I was taking a closer look, I guess he had some facial features in common with the K-pop star. But to me, they still looked completely different. It was hard to square someone like Victor, a short and nerdy Chinese guy who spends all day in the library studying and coding, with the hip-hop-inspired gangster persona of G-Dragon.

“Oh no,” I heard Isaac say, shaking his head. “Not another Koreaboo.”

“What do you mean?” Amber asked.

Isaac pointed to me. “See this young woman? ARMY.”

Now I felt flustered, as he acknowledged my love for BTS with the term used to describe their fans.

He then pointed at Melissa. “See this girl? That girl had dragged this girl into the K-pop sinkhole and now she’s part of the ARMY. I tell you these kinds of people are everywhere on this campus. At this rate I bet some day BTS is gonna play at the Super Bowl.”

“And you’re not a fan of K-pop?” Amber asked.

“No,” he said, “I actually hate K-pop. No offense.”

“None taken,” I said plainly.

“I like music where I can understand the lyrics. That means American music. In my case, that also includes Egyptian pop music, but that’s just my upbringing.”

“You’re Egyptian, right?” Amber asked. “Interesting. I’m actually Korean myself, but I don’t listen to most kinds of K-pop. I’m more of an EDM person.”

Isaac’s angry face turned into a smile. “Yo, finally someone who shares my tastes. You’re going to the Steve Aoki concert tonight?”

“Hell yeah! It’s gonna be lit” Amber said as the two hi-fived each other. She then wrapped her right arm around Deneb. “That’s the whole reason why I’m bringing this girl with me.”

“Hey,” Deneb said.

“Listen,” Amber said matter-of-factly, “Steve Aoki is a living god, and I can still barely believe he’s performing for Spring Fair, and I’m not going to go the concert without my best friend.”

Deneb turned to the rest of the squad. “Yes, I am going thanks to her. Who else is going besides us and Isaac?”

“I’m not,” I said, “I have a lot of work to do tonight.”

“Twenty-one credits, betches,” Melissa piped up as she struck a pose.

“Hey,” I said to her.

“Damn,” Deneb said. “How ‘bout you, Melissa?”

“Couldn’t get a ticket,” Melissa said, sighing in resignation of her situation.

“And you Victor?”

Instead of saying anything, he hid his face. I couldn’t tell if he was about to laugh or cry.

“Are you going?”

He let out a barely audible peep. “Yes.”

“Yes!” Deneb said in a moment of excitement. I get to go to Ram’s Head with G-Dragon, her face said. Isaac must’ve had a similar interpretation, since his resting angry face returned.

“Don’t worry,” Deneb said as she saw Isaac’s face. “You’re cool too.”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

She paused for a few seconds as she tried to change the subject. “You’re all seniors right?”

“Yep,” I said.

“What are you going to do after graduation?”

I was a bit surprised that she didn’t ask for our majors first, but I replied anyways. “I’m starting my position at Google this summer. Guess who’s gonna be in Mountain View?”

“Wow congrats,” Deneb said.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“Plus,” Melissa said, chiming in for me again, “she’s going to be making bank off of Bitcoin.”

“Melissa,” I said, “I told you, it’s not Bitcoin, it’s Ethereum, and the rig I have is tiny. Just three graphics cards. I’m probably getting about a hundred a month from it if I’m lucky. It’s negligible compared to what I’m getting at Google.”

“Cool, cool,” Deneb said. “What are you going to do Melissa?”

“It’s going to be cool,” she said. “I’m going to be working as an aide to my Senator, Al Franken.”

“Omg you’re going into politics?” Deneb said, squealing. “That’s the type of stuff I wanna do!”

“Wait,” Isaac interjected, “I thought you were gonna work for Keith Ellison?”

“Eh, I wanted to, but that didn’t really work out,” she said. “But look on the bright side. Al Franken is still an amazingly progressive politician, and he’s my frickin Senator!”

“Can’t believe you’re doing political stuff,” Deneb said. “I’m actually going to be working with a politician myself. Me and Amber, both of us.”

“Oh, whom?” Melissa asked.

“Jon Ossoff,” Deneb said. “He’s a Democratic candidate for congress in the district we’re from. We’re both from the same suburb of Atlanta, we’re both from Georgia’s 6th district. We used to be represented by Tom Price, but after he was appointed HHS Secretary we had a special election, and now Ossoff is facing off against Republican Karen Handel for the position.”

“Jon Ossoff,” Isaac said quietly. I bet he was thinking of all the flaws such a Democrat could have.

“Yeah, that’s his name,” Deneb said. “I think he’s going to win. He’s young, he’s nerdy - big Star Wars fan - and he has all sorts of experience working in national security. He’s gonna be great.”

“Sure hope so,” Amber said quietly.

“And what about you?” Deneb said to Victor, turning towards him, smiling. “What are you going to do after graduation?”

Victor at first said nothing, but then let out a whisper.

“I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know.”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

* * *

I-83 Jones Falls Expressway, Baltimore, Maryland

My name is 盘凯心, Pan Kaixin. You can call me Victor, though.

It’s a fitting name to choose. In Chinese mythology, there was 盘古, whose body created the universe and the Earth. Then there was Victor Frankenstein, creator of the living from the dead. And now there is me, Victor Pan, a young man determined to create something of his own.

When I was admitted to Hopkins four years ago, my parents and I were ecstatic. I never thought that I, a Chinese international student, could even be admitted to one of the most selective schools in the United States. All the hard work I put in my childhood and teen years - the competition, the late nights studying, the college application process, the time and money my parents sacrificed - was worth it. I have achieved my goal, and now I was going to live it.

But when I arrived at Johns Hopkins, something changed. I felt lost. Everything was upside-down. I was in a new country at a new university starting a new life.

I had a goal to get here, but when that was done, what next? I could go back to China - lots of people are doing that, and hopefully my degree could still stand out against the flood of credentials back home. Or maybe I could stay here in the United States. But that seemed like an impossible dream. I knew nobody here, I kept myself secluded from the culture, and my English was never good enough.

I remembered my first roommate, a fellow international student from China. Despite the shared background, he was worlds away from me. A fuerdai, a member of the Chinese nouveau riche, he definitely had more money than me. I don’t remember what his parents did; I vaguely recall them being in real estate. Regardless, he went to Cholate, one of the best and most expensive private high schools in the United States. His parents owned mansions in both China and America, and he had both a Mercedes and a Chiron. As a result of spending his teen years in this country, he was a lot more Americanized than I was, which made me feel uncomfortable. Soon, we fell into a pattern. He went to parties and hung out with friends both Chinese and American. I stayed in our dorm, studying.

I didn’t make that many friends freshman and sophomore year. I talked to a couple other Chinese international students, who I could communicate comfortably with in our mother tongue. But even then making friends with them was hard; making friends with full-blooded Americans was impossible. It was no surprise that the first real American friend - Crystal Sun - happened to be Chinese as well.

From Crystal, I came to know Isaac, Melissa, and the rest of her gang. It wasn’t always smooth sailing. Many of them were very political, and I remember getting into multiple debates with them about my homeland, whether it’s about Taiwan, Tibet, or other aspects of China’s “atrocious human rights record.” Sometimes it still puzzles me about how they don’t get it. But I didn’t let politics get in the way of friendships. I wasn’t like that; I don’t consider myself political. Thanks to them, I did feel my English improving and my understanding of American culture deepening.

But there was still something missing. As much as they were my friends, they were also not. I see my “friends” hang out together without me, either because nobody told me or because I had to study. And for most of my four years here, I did the same things I did in China - study hard to become successful. No parties, no nothing, just books and code. For that reason, tonight’s Steve Aoki concert will be the first concert - Spring Fair or otherwise - I’ve ever been to.

The bus was packed as it left Homewood Campus. I sat by the window, with Isaac next to me. I could tell he didn’t feel like talking to me; the whole time he was listening to music on his phone. He was having a mini-concert before the main one. And it was good; I didn’t feel like talking either. Instead, I just wanted to look outside the window and see the city of Baltimore pass us by.

It was the greatest city in America, according to the benches. Yet whenever I ride the shuttle, almost always to go to the medical campus, or on the (very few) times I ventured out into the city, I am always struck by the poverty and inequality. Back in China, it felt like because America was so much richer than us, that Americans were all rich, similar to what people think about the Saudi Arabians or the Swiss. But that was clearly not true. If anything, Baltimore was similar to China - the poor next to the rich, with the beggars sitting by the businessmen.

The main difference, I guess, was about race. Back in China, almost everyone was Han, regardless if they were rich or poor. But here, you had the divide between the mostly-black residents and the mostly white and Asian Hopkins students. You even had it in Hopkins itself: black food workers and janitors working next to students who, by and large, didn’t look like them.

As we got onto the Interstate, I thought about Patricia Lea. She works at the Charles Street Market on campus as a cashier, starting when I was a sophomore. Like the others, they were always nice to the students. But I thought there was something special about Patricia. She always seemed extra nice. On the last day of sophomore year, I saw her phone on the counter facing up, with a picture of her with her kids. I asked about it.

“Oh, them?” she said. “They’re my darlings. That’s Kayla,” she pointed at the older-looking girl, “and that’s Layla.”

“You...you have beautiful daughters,” I said. My English still wasn’t that good, so I was super-nervous when complimenting her.

“Thank you young man,” Patricia said in the kindest way possible. I never felt so much warmth from a single person. “It’s not so easy raising such two little rambunctious girls, but they just bring me so much joy at the end of each day.”

I felt tears forming in my eyes as I recalled her saying that. I was interrupted, however, by Isaac’s voice, which carried the opposite tone. Blunt and direct, as he often was.

“We’re here,” he said to me as he put away his earbuds, “time to get off.”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

* * *

Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, Maryland

This was the most crowded place I’ve ever been in life. And I’ve been in many crowded situations. Just a few minutes in the concert hall and the air smelled of sweat. Soon the stench of beer and weed joined in. Movement was absolutely impossible in this environment, where I was being crushed by a deluge of thousands upon thousands trying to move to the front.

I was following Isaac as the two of us tried to make it to the front of the hall, closer to the stage. But predictably enough, I lost him. I was alone in a sea of people. I didn’t know anyone around me.

But I didn’t need to. Soon enough, the concert started. As the beats of A$AP Ferg and, soon enough, Steve Aoki, rocked the hall. Everybody started jumping up and down, dancing to their heart's’ content. I looked around to the best of my ability, trying to prevent myself from being choked by everyone’s bodies. In front of me, for a single moment, there was a couple kissing; the guy had torn off his shirt and was only wearing a pair of jeans, while the girl had a sweaty pink tank top on that barely covered her. I kind of felt jealous of them; they were this couple that loved each other very much, while I was here dancing alone.

But I didn’t have much time to think about that. One second there were there; the next second they had been replaced by a group of boys wearing fraternity gear and holding vape pens, blowing ghosts of gray-white smoke into a room full of life. Then they were replaced.

This was how the cycle went, and as the night wore on I felt more philosophical about the situation. One person or group moved in as the other moved out. One appeared in my life, and the other disappeared. It was life itself, forever transient, tiny specks of dust in this cosmic ocean.

“Hey,” I heard someone say. I turned around and saw this blond dude in a white - what did you call them? - wifebeater holding two red Solo cups. He drank out of one and handed me the other. “Wanna sip? Natty Bo with some Fireball mixed in. I got more where this came from.”

“Uh, thanks?” I said as I accepted the cup.

Without much thought, I downed half of it in one go. The guy who handed me the cup looked surprised, even slightly impressed. “Wow,” he said.

I also felt impressed. I never thought I’d drink so much. I guess it was to make up for the years that I repressed myself. I felt happy for a moment, until I took a step back, when I heard a soft crack followed by a feeling of stickiness under the bottom of my shoe. I had stepped on the Solo cup.

Out of the corner of my eye, way behind the guy, I saw a tuff of blond hair that put his locks to shame. I knew I found Amber. I was slightly hesitant to wave to them, but with the alcohol kicking in I pivoted on the beer puddle and waved both my arms in the air. The rest of the drink fell behind me in a big splash.

Amber didn’t notice me at first, but Deneb, who was dancing next to her, did. Very eagerly, she waved back and started dragging Amber through the crowd. As they got closer, I heard her chants of “Victor! Victor” grow louder. At first I could barely discern them under the boom-boom of Steve Aoki’s EDM beats, but soon they sounded as clear as day.

“Oh my goodddd!” Deneb said as she hugged me. Her hair was messy and her face was red. She had beer stains on her red tank top, and I saw that some of it even spilled onto Amber’s Spring Fair t-shirt. “I can’t believe I’m seeing you!”

I didn’t know what to say, or what to do, other than hugging Deneb back in return. I felt her heartbeat, her body rising up and down with each breath as we squeezed each other. Looking at her under the neon lights. Her eyes shone like gemstones and her hair shimmer like ocean water.

She smiled. “Wanna dance?”

Normally I would hesitate, but here I didn’t. “Sure.”

And we danced the night away. Soon, it was just the two of us, having fun as the rest of the crowd melted away into the background and their screams became one with the music. As Steve Aoki pumped up the beats and dropped the bass multiple times, our feet kept moving and our arms kept swinging. We sometimes held hands, sometimes spinning around each other. Everything melted into a blur of electronica. Time itself seemed to lose meaning. Music was all that was left, that and the pure joy that came along with it.

For a long while, Amber her disappeared, but then she returned, her cupcake hair disheveled and caked with sweat and alcohol. I saw her holding two cups of vodka in her hands. I wonder where she got the drinks. Maybe from the blond guy? I didn’t know.

“Want some?” she asked.

“Sure,” Deneb said, gently grabbing one of the cups from her friend, and then the other cup. She turned towards me. “You want one?”

I did want one, but I felt queasy. A lot, actually, I just realized. My stomach felt on fire. My face felt warm. Maybe it was the Asian flush everyone kept talking about. Most people I knew back home drink enough to get used to it, but since I never drunk, the flush must’ve hit with full force.

“Victor?”

As Deneb spoke, things started blurring into a haze. My arms were sore and my legs had become jelly. Reality left me, as the music and madness blurred into a rainbow-colored mush, until I fell and everything became nothing.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

* * *

The next thing I remembered was being in the bathroom. I found myself hunched over the toilet with my face hovering just centimeters over the water. The water was filled with a yellowish liquid that reeked of acid and alcohol - my vomit. I could hear the shrieks of thousands of people from outside, but they were drowned out by the sound of my own breathing. In, out, in, out, my lungs were heaving as I tried to make sense of everything.

I felt a warm hand gently patting my back as I struggled to bring up the final bits of vomit out of my esophagus. I couldn’t turn around and see; my body was fixed in this hunching position, with every muscle refusing to move from its place. The bright fluorescent lights created a whole different world from the dark cave of the concert hall, so I was completely blind anyways, as if I stared into the sun.

But I knew whose hand it was. It was Deneb’s. I realized that as I was blacking out, she had brought me to the bathroom to clear out my system. Then an important question appeared in my head - was I in the women’s room?

That did not concern Deneb. “There there, you vomited a lot already.”

I struggled to form words. “I...I sure d-did,” I said.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Y-yes,” I said, heavily breathing. I still felt the next round of vomit about to come up from my stomach. Trembling, I tried to stand up a little, but I didn’t get up all the way, fearing that I would slip and fall face-first in the toilet bowl. Deneb saw this and held me from under my belly, as she tried to help me get up.

“Geez, for someone like you you’re so heavy,” she said as she tried to prop me against the wall of the toilet stall. I ended up leaning against the graffiti-covered wall, and she ended up supporting her entire body weight against me. Nearly upright, I could see Deneb’s face under the bathroom lights. Her cheeks were red, and her face was glowing and sweating profusely. Her fiery auburn hair was neatly organized into a ponytail just earlier today, but was now all over the place, disheveled and messy. Some of her hair was blowing in my face, tickling me. Her body and her clothes were all covered in sweat, and she was nearly shaking from the stress of supporting me.

I didn’t know how to thank Deneb for her monumental effort to save me. “Thanks,” I said meekly.

“You’re welcome,” she replied, struggling to form a smile. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I don’t know if you can call me okay,” I said. My legs still felt like jelly, the world still seemed to spin around my head, and the vomit was coming any minute now.

She laughed. “You’re probably in better shape than I am,” she said.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “How much did I drink even?”

“I only remember you having that one cup,” she said. “You didn’t drink the cup Amber gave you. I don’t know what that guy put into your cup. He said there was Fireball in it, right?”

“Yes, and I drank it all down.” I said, breathing between each word.

“Wow,” Deneb said. “Drinking so much of that stuff in one sitting. Nobody could do that.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” I said.

“Are you? You looked like you were going to collapse again.”

“I actually feel better.” I did, slightly. The vomiting had gotten rid of the burning sensation from my stomach, and slowly but surely I regained my footing on the slippery bathroom floor. Even the temptation to vomit again.

As I steadied myself, the two of us stood there, just looking at each other.

“You’re so extra, you know this?” said Deneb.

I stood frozen for a second, not knowing what to say, when she stepped in again. “And you’re still cute, even when you’re like this.”

I am? I probably looked even worse than Deneb. But I didn’t care. I was flattered. “Thanks,” I said again.

She took one step towards me and moved her hands across my body, until they once again formed a hug, and I felt the warmth of her skin against my own. “You know, I know we only knew each other for a few hours now,” she whispered in my ear, “but this time I felt something special.”

“Special?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“I dunno, love?”

“Love?” I said. I felt dizzy. Is this love? I’ve never really been in love. Dating, getting a girlfriend, all that kind of stuff - all that felt beyond me my whole life. My life was all about studying and success, not about sex and love.

But studying and success only got me so far in life. Now was a different moment. I was with this girl, this girl who called me cute, danced with me, and helped me in my time of greatest need. She was kind, and she was lovely. But I didn’t know what to do.

She did, however. “So we’re in this bathroom stall together,” she said, “and nobody else is here.” Her eyes darted around before they came back to me. “Wanna kiss?”

I really didn’t know what to say to this. But I looked at her, and inside me I felt something as well.

Could this be love?

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” she said, remembering about all the lessons we had about asking for consent. “We can go home, or if you want go back to party, or - I dunno, anything really.”

“No,” I said, “I feel something.”

“Feel what?”

I didn’t want to say it, but I had to. “Love.”

“Love?”

“Love.”

She chuckled. “That’s funny. Love at first sight is usually something that happens in a fairy tale.”

“Maybe this is our fairy tale.”

“Maybe.”

“And you know what they always do in fairy tales?”

“What?”

“Kiss.”

And so I brought my lips to hers, and she brought her lips to mine. It was exhilarating, as we shared our warmth with each other and kneaded each others’ faces. I smelled her rose perfume and her sweat, and she smelled the acrid taste of my vomit. In this tiny bathroom stall, in this way-too-small concert hall in this tiny city in America, spinning on the third planet of an insignificant star in a mediocre corner of the galaxy, one of many trillions in the universe, it was just the two of us.

This is love.

In the middle of this, the stall door slammed open.

“Yooo I just got caked by Steve- wait, what?” The two of us turned around and saw Amber, her face red and hair messy under a layer of white icing and chocolate cake.

“Uh,” Amber said, visibly embarrassed, “I’ll see myself out.”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

https://twitter.com/steveaoki/status/859067528752103425

[Cynthia]

Wow. Victor's story resembled my first semester in college.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

February 4, 2040 - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California

Steve Aoki closed the book shut, creating a small cloud of dust in front of him. The title words - Free Star: The Journey of Deneb Luna - shone and sparkled under the dazzling backstage lights. Below them on the cover were her eyes, determined and sharp enough to pierce into the reader’s soul.

He was both nervous and confident at the same time. As one of the world’s best-known EDM players in the world, he was used to being up on stage for concerts. But never before would he did something like this. Venturing into politics.

Okay, that was a lie, he thought. He was very involved in politics back in college, much like the subject of the biography he had just put down. Specifically, he was the founder of UC Santa Barbara’s Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. It was a bit of a paradox, honestly. He was a leftist radical who was the son of the founder of Benihana. As he made a name for himself, he made millions, buying mansions all over California.

The artist thought about his father, a man who moved from Japan to America to seek his fortune, who made millions of his own yet never told his son to inherit the family business. Rather, he had to strike out on his own. He knew he loved music from his teenage years, creating his own record labels by the time he was in his 20s. But music was a hard industry to break into. Doubly so for an Asian-American man like Steve Aoki. Yet he persevered, and he won, becoming a star known by millions and uniting them through the shared human love of music.

Steve delicately stroked his hair; it was usually long and untamed like a lion’s mane, but this time gelled up and ponytailed as he prepared to enter the more staid world of American politics. He took a final look at the book. It was not a long book, only about a hundred pages, a testament to a promising political career cut short. Yet despite its brevity, the journey of Deneb Luna served as an inspiration to him.

It wasn’t just the chapter about how she met her boyfriend-turned-fiance, a modern-day fairy tale about love at first sight taking place at one of his concerts, that moved him, though he always found that bit touching. He saw a bit of her in himself, and he bet she saw a bit of himself in her. Like him, Deneb was Asian-American - half Asian, he corrected himself, half Korean and half Peruvian. He read about the challenges she faced as an Asian female trying to make a mark in a field traditionally marked with exclusion and racism. Like him, Deneb took these challenges and found opportunity, finding a spot in a system that wanted to make them both invisible. Even when the system crushed her dreams, she only became a martyr.

He often wondered about his status as a trailblazer and a role model. When he started, there were barely any Asian artists known to the American mainstream. Now there were so many. And not just music. Without him, would there be as many Asians inspired to go into American politics? Would there even be a Deneb Luna, a Crystal Sun, or an Amber Glass?

Enough time for meditation, he thought as he straightened himself up, adjusted his suit and tie, put on a big smile, and made his way to the stage. It was time for action. Hopefully Deneb was smiling too, somewhere.

“What’s up California!” he said as he walked onstage to thousands of cheering fans with his arms and heart outstretched. “My name is Steve Aoki, and I am running to be your next United States Senator!”

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Steve Aoki announces Senate run

Reported by Buzzfeed.com
February 4, 2040

At the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, EDM artist Steve Aoki has formally announced that he will run as a Democrat for United States Senate, against incumbent Robert Garcia (R-CA), putting an end to months of speculation.

“You may know me from the music world,” he said. “But what you may not know is that I have a political side. Not the politics of divisiveness, greed, and corruption we see from many of our current politicians, but a politics of love, a politics of making the world a better place. It’s what I’ve been doing with the power of my music. Now, it’s your turn to change the world, with the power of your vote!”

His announcement has been met with mixed reactions, including from other Democrats who also intend on challenging Garcia. “I welcome Steve [Aoki] into the race,” Congressman Frank Ontiveros (D-CA), who is also running for Garcia’s seat, said, “but the thing is he has no political experience. If you want to know what that can lead to, just look at the late Donald Trump.”

Others were more encouraging, including Garcia’s colleague Sen. Bao Nguyen (D-CA). “Some of our best Senators have been from the world of art, including [Senate] Minority Leader Trevor Noah and Senator Dwayne Johnson. Given his passion for politics and philanthropy, I am sure he will serve the people of California well.”

Sen. Garcia has not yet commented on the announcement.

Aoki’s announcement has made a splash among his fellow celebrities as well. “Steve is a passionate person. Passionate about music and about social justice. Endorsed.” Swedish-American artist Avicii wrote in a tweet. Aoki had recently collaborated with Avicii on his “No More” series of concerts campaigning against illegal human experimentation.

Aoki has had a history of political activism. A lifelong proponent of leftist values, Aoki founded a Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League chapter at his alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, where he double majored in feminist studies and sociology. He had been a vocal supporter of Democratic candidates in past elections, including former President Joaquin Castro, and he has supported progressive priorities such as universal health care and criminal justice reform. Aoki is also well known for his philanthropy efforts, including the Los Angeles-based freebake empire Cakes for All, which pioneered the concept of serving nutrient-enriched cakes for free to the poor and homeless.

If elected, he would become the third Asian-American Senator from California, after FBI director Kamala Harris and Sen. Nguyen. He would also join Trevor Noah (D-NY) and Dwayne Johnson (R-FL) as among the famous celebrities who have been elected to the upper chamber.

Aoki is well-known for his expanding and evolving repertoire of music, largely focusing on EDM but also incorporating elements of rap, hip-hop, K-pop, and C-pop. He is also known for his extensive collaborations with artists from around the world; besides his collaboration with Avicii, he has been collaborating with K-pop band BTS for their reunion concert at the Super Bowl.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

The Senators of California.

Senior Senator: Robert Garcia (R-CA)



Robert Garcia was elected Senator in 2034 and is the first Republican Senator from California since 1992, which was almost half a century ago. However, Garica only became a Republican in 2030, marking the second time he has switched parties; he was originally a Republican until 2007, when he switched to the Democratic Party. Born in Lima, Peru, he was elected Mayor of Long Beach in 2014, the first Latino and the first openly gay person to be elected to the position. He then represented California's 44th district from 2022 (when he was elected in the Democratic wave that year) to 2032, switching parties in the meantime to adapt to the growing conservatism of his district.

Junior Senator: Bao Nguyen (D-CA)



Nguyen was elected Senator in 2036, after a divisive general election battle with Oakland mayor Chris Compton. Both Nguyen and Compton benefited from a Republican lockout during the jungle primary; a ton of Republicans were inspired to run thanks to Crystal Sun's candidacy that year, so even though the Republicans received the majority of votes it was Nguyen and Compton who made it to the runoff.

Before, Nguyen, who was born in Thailand to Vietnamese refugees, served as the mayor of Garden Grove, California from 2014 to 2016. He then represented California's 46th district from 2020 to 2030, before finally being defeated during the 2030 Republican wave. However, between 2030 and 2036 he was involved in various philanthropic and activist initiatives across California, ensuring his popularity and name recognition in the state.

Like Garica, Nguyen is also openly gay, making California currently the only state to have both its Senators be openly gay. California is also one of the few states to have two foreign-born Senators (New York is another example; senior Senator Trevor Noah is South African-born, while junior Senator Yves Rosenberg was born in Israel.)

[Cold War Liberal]

“Steve is a passionate person. Passionate about music and about social justice. Endorsed.” Swedish-American artist Avicii wrote in a tweet. Aoki had recently collaborated with Avicii on his “No More” series of concerts campaigning against illegal human experimentation.

Uhhh...

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

“Steve is a passionate person. Passionate about music and about social justice. Endorsed.” Swedish-American artist Avicii wrote in a tweet. Aoki had recently collaborated with Avicii on his “No More” series of concerts campaigning against illegal human experimentation.

Uhhh...

Avicii lives in this timeline. And there will be more people like him.

(Love your signature quote btw)

[Cold War Liberal]

“Steve is a passionate person. Passionate about music and about social justice. Endorsed.” Swedish-American artist Avicii wrote in a tweet. Aoki had recently collaborated with Avicii on his “No More” series of concerts campaigning against illegal human experimentation.

Uhhh...

Avicii lives in this timeline. And there will be more people like him.

(Love your signature quote btw)

I see, carry on with this great work.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Who are North Carolina's Senators?

[morgankingsley]

I just realized something. You said there was the Wyoming rule in 2036. You said said Trump wins two terms, both with him losing the popular vote. Is him losing the popular vote twice and winning the electoral college twice the way that the Wyoming rule was placed in?

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

I just realized something. You said there was the Wyoming rule in 2036. You said said Trump wins two terms, both with him losing the popular vote. Is him losing the popular vote twice and winning the electoral college twice the way that the Wyoming rule was placed in?

The Wyoming/Vermont rule was implemented in a big Realignment-era effort to make voting easier for everyone. Same with the simplification of the DNC's primary rules (including removing superdelegates). Not everything got overhauled, though - for one thing, the Electoral College is still around and kicking.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Anyways, does anyone want to volunteer to make a writeup on the Super Bowl LXXIV game? PM me if you wish to. I'll make the writeup on the halftime show.

EDIT: Wow nobody responded yet? I guess I should've made it clear that I want a writeup completed soon so I can get onto 2040 New Hampshire and Nevada, and close this chapter before next week. (In-universe, Super Bowl happens Sunday, Feb. 5; New Hampshire primaries are on Tuesday, Feb. 7).

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

BTS slays at Super Bowl - A story of grit, success and the Asian Invasion

By Amanda Choi in New York Magazine
February 5, 2040

As the Baltimore Ravens won their third Vince Lombardi trophy against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl LXXIV, BTS scored their own victory during the Halftime Show. Playing a medley of three decades’ worth of music, from 2010s classics like DNA to 2030s bops like Speak and Hamilton, their music nearly got drowned out by fan chanting and applause. Half the audience only seemed to come for BTS; if the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, then BTS was bigger than football. The K-pop group made what would ordinarily be a reunion concert into a moment in history.

BTS, also known as Bangtan Boys and known in Korean as Bangtan Sonyeondan, the seven-member group was founded in 2013 under the Big Hit Entertainment label. They started out moderately successful with their debut album 2 Cool 4 Skool, and had many performances in Korea and Japan. Their singles and albums sold thousands of copies and their YouTube music videos began to rack up views, but it wasn’t special compared to the big groups of the time.

By the time BTS was finding its footing, K-pop and K-drama - collectively known as the Korean Wave - was already popular, especially in Asia. The Korean Wave, also known as the Hallyu Wave, is usually said to have begun in the 1990s, when the first K-pop bands formed. As Korean pop culture grew in popularity, the South Korean government seized the opportunity to actively promote Korean soft power globally, entering a space dominated by cultural power players like the US, Britain, and Japan. Soon K-dramas were airing in China and Japan, and K-pop became a global phenomenon. By the 2000s and 2010s, groups like Girls’ Generation, 2NE1, Shinee, EXO and Super Junior had become household names across the world.

However, the effects of the Korean Wave was not felt evenly across the world. In Asia, particularly in Japan, Taiwan and China, K-pop had a large influence. Promoting in Japan was a common phenomenon for many K-pop groups - some promoted in Japan more than in Korea, given the former’s larger market - and Korean merchandise and culture was common across Asia. However, in the West, K-pop remained a niche genre. Many Americans, especially Asian-Americans, did listen to K-pop, but no K-pop star (save Psy) had successfully made it into the mainstream.

A lot of K-pop groups tried to break into the American market, and before BTS they had all failed. Many explanations were given. Some said Americans don’t want to listen to non-English music. Others cited anti-Asian racism, especially racism directed against Asian men. Who, according to proponents of such theories, wanted to listen to effeminate, unsexy Asian men who spoke a language nobody could understand? Better to stick to the familiarity of black and white artists.

BTS, as it turned out, proved them wrong. By 2017 they had become the first group to successfully break into the American market. Part of it was good timing; the boy band One Direction had disbanded a few years back, and millions of fans searched for another group to follow. BTS served that niche quite well. Like the Beatles a half-century before, they attracted millions of fangirls who listened to their music and followed their lives religiously. They began collaborating with famous artists like Steve Aoki, topped numerous charts, and were even congratulated by then-South Korean president Moon Jae-in for their unique contributions to music. Their biggest break came in 2019 with their first Super Bowl Halftime performance, firmly establishing themselves into America’s fabric of music.

Then came the Crisis. The Crisis led to a near-collapse of the Korean music industry,. Many Korean artists either died or quit music after being drafted into the Korean military, while nobody wanted to spend money on albums when they barely had enough to buy food. Big Hit Entertainment itself nearly went bankrupt as the members of BTS served in the Korean Army, as required under South Korean law. Remarkably, despite their service, BTS ended up as one of the few boy bands where all members survived the Crisis. After everyone finished their service by 2029, they reunited and restarted their passion of making music.

Though the Crisis is usually seen as a tragedy for K-pop, it can also be seen as an opportunity. During the Crisis, millions of Koreans and Japanese left their homelands for greener pastures, and many of them found themselves in America, where many of them were favored under the then-recent Brown-Graham immigration bill. As they migrated and formed new communities in their adopted countries, they brought their pop culture with them. That, along with the rise of China as the world’s superpower, cemented Asian pop culture’s dominant position in the global landscape.

Today, you can find Korean culture everywhere in America. You can see the faces of K-pop singers plastered on Times Square ads, or you can buy a t-shirt that says “Saranghaeyo” at a Buc-ee’s in Abilene, Texas. At times, this “Asian Invasion” seems overwhelming, just like the “British Invasion” of the Beatles era. If anything, however, it is not an invasion; it is a homecoming. K-pop, after all, is inspired by American beats; BTS merely took the idea of the British and American boy bands and took it to the next level. It was no surprise, then, that BTS performed at Facebook Stadium during this most American of events.

And perform they did. Tonight, BTS will leave a stellar performance that will be remembered for years. They were the stars of the night, and they have shone brightly, as bright as the future of K-pop in America and around the world.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Facebook Stadium D:

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

February 7 - New Hampshire Primary Results


Sen. Gabbard campaigning in Manchester

American Samoa
Northern Mariana Islands
Americans Abroad
Guam
US Virgin Islands

State Results

Gov. Amber Glass - 36%, 8 delegates (17 total)
Sen. Pete Buttigieg - 25%, 6 delegates (17 total)
Gov. Jon Ossoff - 23%, 5 delegates (13 total)
Sen. Tulsi Gabbard - 16%, 4 delegates (4 total)
Sen. Tim Ryan - 0%, 0 delegates (0 total)

New Hampshire Total: 22 delegates

2500 total delegates
1251 delegates needed to win

The first primary of the 2040 election season ended up full of surprises. While Amber Glass won the primary, as was expected, Tim Ryan’s dropping out has led to Jon Ossoff and Pete Buttigieg winning more delegates than expected, as they both passed the 15 percent threshold.

The most shocking news was Tulsi Gabbard’s overperformance. The Hawaiian senator had also passed the 15 percent threshold, thanks to high turnout among college students there who mainly voted for her and Glass. It wasn’t a total surprise, as Gabbard had campaigned heavily in the state. She often made as many as ten speeches per day at different locations, and it paid off. Now the question is if she could keep her momentum in other states, where she did not do such intensive campaigning.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

February 18 - Nevada Primary Results


Gov. Glass at a campaign event in Las Vegas

American Samoa
Northern Mariana Islands
Americans Abroad
Guam
US Virgin Islands

State Results

Gov. Amber Glass - 49%, 18 delegates (35 total)
Sen. Pete Buttigieg - 25%, 9 delegates (26 total)
Gov. Jon Ossoff - 18%, 7 delegates (20 total)
Sen. Tulsi Gabbard - 8%, 0 delegates (4 total)
Sen. Tim Ryan - 0%, 0 delegates (0 total)

Nevada Total: 34 delegates

2500 total delegates
1251 delegates needed to win

Governor Amber Glass has scored another victory in the Nevada primaries, as she scored almost half of the vote there. She was followed by Pete Buttigieg, who earned second place thanks to support in northern Nevada (Glass focused her efforts in the Las Vegas metro). Meanwhile, Jon Ossoff made a respectable third place, with enough votes enough to get him over the 15 percent threshold. Tulsi Gabbard was not so lucky; hoping that she could capitalize on her better than expected showing in New Hampshire, she instead landed in fourth place by a wide margin and won zero delegates; it was better than what the pessimists expected, but it looks like it was not enough for her campaign.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Awwh Buttigieg.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

“Only Sun can go to China” - How the Sino-American Dialogue has played out

by Kahi Ahn; first published in South China Morning Post
February 19, 2040


Pres. Crystal Sun playing with kids at Yongchang Primary School

Since her arrival at Beijing on Chinese New Years, US president Crystal Sun and Chinese president Richard Xie have engaged in five days of discussions over the most important bilateral relation in human history. The scope of their discussion was wide-ranging, ranging from the Internet to trade deals to the future of Africa, technology, and the very meaning of being human.

The scope of Sun’s travels in China was also vast. After her initial three days in Beijing, Sun traveled to Shanghai, becoming one of the millions of commuters and tourists who travel between the two cities every day. (Due to security reasons, instead of going on China’s famed high-speed rail system, she traveled via Air Force One.) At China’s commercial and financial hub - the Shanghai Stock Exchange is the world’s largest by market capitalization - she met with many of China’s business leaders, such as former Alibaba CEO Jack Ma and celebrity venture capitalist Andi Li.

After Shanghai, Sun traveled to a radically different city in Kunming, the capital of China’s rural Yunnan Province. Despite its relative isolation and underdevelopment, the region has seen massive changes both before and since the Crisis, as the Chinese government had poured billions over the years in modernization efforts. Today, it is not uncommon there to see drones carrying supplies to traditional open-air markets, or for locals to use smartphones and smart glasses to harvest crops and mushrooms.

In Kunming, Sun visited the Yongchang Primary School, one of the thousands of schools around the world to receive a Global Scholar School grant. The GSS program, which is operated jointly by UNICEF and UNESCO, was championed by Sun during her first speech to the UN in 2037 and allows schools in underprivileged communities to teach English, Spanish (both of which are taught at Yongchang), and any other of the six official UN languages. During her visit, Sun was praised by the China Friendship Foundation for Peace & Development for “displaying a model of Sino-American relations that the world can emulate for peace and prosperity.”

Challenges Remain

However, not everything was smooth sailing. One of the biggest issues brought up during the Dialogue was the Great Firewall, China’s sophisticated online censorship system. The Great Firewall was substantially relaxed in recent years, even before Sun’s presidency, and today millions of Chinese people use previously-blocked websites like VirtualEarth, Google, YouTube, and Facebook. This liberalization was fashioned as part of the overall dismantling of trade barriers that was part of the Sunshine Policy; while China was letting in Google and Facebook, the US removed its longstanding embargos on Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE.

However, while the social media giants have gotten a big break, not everyone is so lucky. Pornography sites remain completely censored by the Great Firewall. So are many Western news sites such as the New York Times and The Economist, which remain blocked as the Chinese Communist Party retains control over Chinese media. And while most American websites can operate in China, they don’t do so freely; politically sensitive content posted by Chinese netizens, even on American-owned platforms, are usually censored by sophisticated AI algorithms built into the Great Firewall.

Africa is another issue that has led to tensions. Both China and the United States, along with regional actors like the East African Community, train and fund a confusing variety of rebel groups in the Eastern Congo. While discussions towards a final peace deal were entertained, the truth is that one that can accommodate every one of the hundreds of groups there is nigh impossible, especially as the two superpowers jealously guard their spheres of influence in the resource-rich region.

One of the central themes of the Dialogue was technology, particularly AI. As both China and the US crank out sophisticated AI systems for war and peace, international regulation appears more and more paramount. One of the issues discussed was the possibility of virtual humans, AI systems with human-level intelligence that demand equal rights as their biological counterparts. While the goal of human-level AI has remained elusive, many experts say that humanity has never been closer to creating one. There was also discussions about the infamous Neo-Rationalist Buddhists, the transhumanist religious movement that the Chinese government has designated as a terrorist group.

An issue that hasn’t been brought up due to Chinese reluctance, but important nonetheless given recent protests, is been the issue of AI ethnic profiling. AI systems have been used extensively in the African Wars by rival ethnic groups to target each other, and China has been accused by human rights organizations of using AI racial profiling to target Uyghurs and Tibetans.

Going Forward

The final stop for Sun during the Dialogue will be Taipei, Taiwan. It has been a mere five years since the reunification of Mainland China and Taiwan, which before 2035 has had a de facto independent government of its own. In that time, Xie and other Communist Party officials have visited Taiwan to promote the benefits of reunification. Soon, Sun will be making her own trip to the island, which still retains a high level of autonomy from Beijing, to discuss the future of US-Taiwan relations.

This final stop encapsulates the challenges of the Sino-American relationship. Even during the Crisis and post-Crisis years, China and America needed each other, and the Sunshine Policy has been a reflection of that reality. However, it is inevitable that two superpowers with vastly different interests and government philosophies clash on the world stage. Only time will tell if Sun’s continued Dialogues will fail, or if they blossom into a relationship that the world can indeed emulate.