On Saturday, John and I had dinner with Laura Wang and her friend Teh Ghee. I met both of them the day after Christmas when I attended a web-blogger’s meet up. Laura works for Forbes magazine (China) and Teh is a daytrader– here to just soak up the culture in transition. His sister-in-law is a feminist in Singapore but he didn’t talk much about her beyond saying they get into a lot of arguments. Nuff said. A pleasant dinner though… Laura is interested in doing a language exchange.

Today, we took Nai and Yeb to the Golden Jaguar, a new Taiwanese-run buffet located on Nanjing Xi Rd., in the hoyty-toyty Jiang An district. The restaurant has only been open for two months, but it’s this elaborate 3500 sf place serving over 100 dishes. I think Nai and Yeb really enjoyed it (though Nai almost got lost in there). They had all kinds of seafood, including clams, shrimp, squid, Shanghai hairy crabs… we ate for about two hours and are skipping dinner.

At Golden Jaguar, a young Chinese lady (probably our age, maybe a little younger… it’s hard to tell) sat with this 60-some year old Caucasian guy at the table next to us. The woman was wearing these hipster jeans, with her lower abdomen exposed. I mean, I know the low-riders are in style now, but you could see her pelvic bone and the curvature of her belly, below the belly button! It was a little extreme. And then the guy was old! a bald white guy with circular wire-rimmed spectacles and a ringmaster’s mustache. Honestly, at first, I was just taken aback by her jeans. Sure, it was an odd pairing, but I waited to reserve judgement. You never know… she could have been his adopted daughter or something. When I looked across the table at Nai, she muttered something to me. I barely heard her and was convinced she was relaying something to me in Chinese. Then she said louder and clearer, “sweet daddy.” And she had this smug smile like she knew a secret. What?? Where did she learn this term? We head back to the buffet table and Nai says she’s read all about this in the papers. Young girls going with old men who afford them a comfortable lifestyle. The Chinese term for it is “tang die.” Meanwhile, I’m still in denial. I mean, she really could be his adopted daughter, right? Wrong. They start holding hands, feeding each other… Okay so I’m still a little naive.