In 2020, at the peak of the pandemic: A gay friend was about to return to China, and the suspended future was as fuzzy as his gender. In any case, he decided to don a feather robe for the last dance in Manhattan. We say farewell to the lucky cat in a Chi- natown meat shop, to the US police station that looks like Disneyland, and to the man- nequins locked inside the Soho window like modern mermaids... In Ancient China, there is a myth about a fairy who has to dance for the fishermen because he took away the feather robe she needs to fly back home. But that is just a faded myth. In the real world, people live by phantom limbs. Whether it is one's body, memory, political identi- ty, or gender, everything can be left anywhere. A future full of uncertainty is like an oversized hat. However, the behemoth we feel scared of will after all attract us to step into it.
