Night of the Navy Port

“The navy port is so quiet at night, the waves sway the warship softly.

A young marine rests his head on the waves like a pillow,

revealing a sweet smile from his dream…”

— “Night of the Navy Port”

My dad used to sing me this marine song as a lullaby when I was a child. The melodies created by his voice continue to echo in my mind, though I had never heard of the original song itself. On one homesick day, I found the song on Spotify and listened to the original track for the first time. It was almost a completely different, unfamiliar song—because my dad, like me, cannot sing in tune. The feelings of comfort associated with this song belonged solely to his voice. While this revelation of “distorted reality” was rather a sweet and playful one, it made me think of how other images of my childhood surroundings in Beijing were also muffled and only became clear as I grew older.