After a long night of confirming and organizing things for the ShiFen Festival (Feb 6th, Penghao Theater, near Nanluoguxiang, w00t!) at the theater, Julie and I stopped by the ex-12sqm bar down the street. I’m not sure what the new name of the bar is, but as they’ve expanded and are no longer merely 12 square meters, they obviously can’t use the old name. To celebrate all the positive stuff happening with ShiFen (the amazing performers, the Chinese version of RENT performing “Seasons of Love” in Mandarin, the lovely dancers, etc) Julie and I treated ourselves with a couple beers. Being the cross-cultural gap-crossers that Cheeky Monkey is known for, Julie had a Sam Adams (pronounced Sa’maddams) and I had a Buddha-shaped bottled Lucky Beer (from Shanghai). Despite the frigid temperatures at both the theater and the bar (hutongs are prone to this refrigerator effect), it was a good night. Even if it perhaps made my cold worse

~ Elyse ( 柳素英 )