ABSTRACT
The term taboo comes from Chinese ta bu, most likely. It means “don’t touch,” “off limits” or “don’t go there.” Literally: “That. No.” It, that, him and her are all the same pronoun in Chinese: “ta.” “Bu” means no. When it came to a foreigner marrying a local woman, what part of “no” didn’t I understand? We’d been joking about it for a while now. Tina would say “if we get married, we should do such and such,” and I’d grin and say “You mean ‘when’ we get married,’” and so on. Having had a successful weekend outing together, when she learned she had two days off that week in early September, she had proposed we go to Dalian for a few days. Unfortunately, I’d just started teaching, and taking off for a few days would be problematic. Then, as luck would have it, my Wednesday class was canceled, I had Thursdays already free, and there was a window.
