How three generations of a family gradually gave up riding the waves off Hainan’s coast
In 2019, I accompanied a friend to Wanning, Hainan, to check out apartments. Our realtor was 26-year-old Ah Jin. His skin was a deep brown, and he was wearing a pair of cheap sandals. The collar of his t-shirt had long since stretched out, and he spoke with a thick Hainan accent. But he was handsome, clear-eyed, and tall, with a visibly muscled chest. We complimented him on his physique, but he just chuckled. “The only entertainment I had as a child was swimming in the ocean—it’s all due to the exercise.”
Renjian the Livings is the nonfiction storytelling platform under NetEase. It aims to “reconstruct life through narration.”
Translated By
Nathaniel Gan is a translator working from Chinese and Spanish to English. He translates poetry, fiction, and first-person narratives for TWOC. His background in activism, farming, education, and design has provided a fertile training ground for navigating the space between worldviews, where meaning depends as much on context as content. Based out of Providence, Rhode Island, Nathaniel collaborates with poets and writers in the US and internationally.
