Madness Burger: Do You Know This Girl
All the world’s a stage. A show is happening at midnight at McDonald’s in Beijing. Some are wandering between the seats, some are stretching over the tables, and some are talking secrets beneath the burgers. These people stay for the nights, they are waiting for another sunrise on the ground. Objects become props, food loses its functions, and the air draws the tension. Here is a non-stop theatre, 24/7.
One night, a woman and a man were sitting behind me. I heard the whole conversation unintentionally, but I listened curiously. They brought some business cards in a small transparent plastic bag and put them on the table, like garbage you can sometimes see on the ground. A sack of name cards with sexy girls wearing their numbers on them, yet I couldn’t see any more details. The man said to the woman, ‘Do you know this girl? She is Andy Lau’s daughter. The man didn’t wait for her response and pointed to another card and said, that was his daughter. The woman said they were both pretty. She compared them to Bingbing Fan and Angela Baby. They claimed that they knew so well about these celebrities, and discussed how much money the actors and actresses actually earned in the past with a certain tone.
However, I doubted; I thought through what they talked about. My face was frozen, and my shoulders looked stiff. The man noticed me, he turned over, asked me where I was from and how old I was. He didn’t give me a chance to speak a line and said, you looked a bit like her, he held a card at the same time. The woman also looked at my face for a second, said ‘hmm, yes’ with a heavy nod. “ I’m sorry, but I’m not her”, I said. This time, they both looked at me and scanned over my body from hair to toes. I couldn’t stand any more awkward situations. ‘ I have to go, ’ I said quickly and left them.
I looked back at the front door, and the so-called dessert station was next to it. I eventually realized there was no ice cream for sale after 10 p.m. All I wanted was the newly released flavour. I gave up trying to understand a man, a woman, a trashy salad, as well as a strawberry milkshake sundae.
Jan, 2018
One night, a woman and a man were sitting behind me. I heard the whole conversation unintentionally, but I listened curiously. They brought some business cards in a small transparent plastic bag and put them on the table, like garbage you can sometimes see on the ground. A sack of name cards with sexy girls wearing their numbers on them, yet I couldn’t see any more details. The man said to the woman, ‘Do you know this girl? She is Andy Lau’s daughter. The man didn’t wait for her response and pointed to another card and said, that was his daughter. The woman said they were both pretty. She compared them to Bingbing Fan and Angela Baby. They claimed that they knew so well about these celebrities, and discussed how much money the actors and actresses actually earned in the past with a certain tone.
However, I doubted; I thought through what they talked about. My face was frozen, and my shoulders looked stiff. The man noticed me, he turned over, asked me where I was from and how old I was. He didn’t give me a chance to speak a line and said, you looked a bit like her, he held a card at the same time. The woman also looked at my face for a second, said ‘hmm, yes’ with a heavy nod. “ I’m sorry, but I’m not her”, I said. This time, they both looked at me and scanned over my body from hair to toes. I couldn’t stand any more awkward situations. ‘ I have to go, ’ I said quickly and left them.
I looked back at the front door, and the so-called dessert station was next to it. I eventually realized there was no ice cream for sale after 10 p.m. All I wanted was the newly released flavour. I gave up trying to understand a man, a woman, a trashy salad, as well as a strawberry milkshake sundae.
Jan, 2018