The world changes too fast for us to keep up—last year around this time I visited Kunda in Guangzhou and we had Chaoshan beef hot pot together, but this year even Kunda’s trip back to Taiwan became difficult. During his long break after a 14-day quarantine, he brought his family traveling through Taichung and invited me to dinner with his college friend, an accountant; the three of us met at Shijiujin Izakaya near Central Taiwan Science Park, clinking glasses and catching up. After a certain age every gathering feels precious—more than ten years have passed since grad school, and hearing Kunda talk about meeting high-level officials on US business trips and joining his boss in a video meeting with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos felt unimaginable back in our student days; thanks for treating us, Kunda—take care after you return to Guangzhou, and have a safe trip! — Morgan, 2020.8.27 evening
