In the Company of Cats

The Other China

貓片兒

In the Company of Cats is the third and final installment in our 2023 commemoration of June Fourth. See also:

Back When the Sino-US Cold War Began, 1 June 2023; and,
Other People’s Thoughts, XXXV, 4 June 2023

Here we spend this dark anniversary the uplifting company of the artist Lao Shu 老樹 and the raconteur Mei Liu’r 梅六兒, both of whom are based in Beijing.

貓片兒 māopiàn’r, the title of Mei Liu’r’s ‘cat tales’, and the Chinese title of this chapter in The Other China, is a term used to describe ailurophiles, or cat obsessives, as well as feline fanatics who don’t have the wherewithal to keep a cat.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
4 June 2023

5+1 5-1忌日

Rather the Company of a Cat

Lao Shu

People are simply too much trouble
Better share the company of a cat.
Together our fleeting lives pass
Without any of those hassles