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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of east asian short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

420+ East asian Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Discover the best new stories by East Asian authors.

East asian Short Stories – Page 28 of 29

Punjabi taste of Malaysia

Submitted to Contest #63

The girl, who lived with her family in Pakistan, was living day and night in a backward area where food and hunger was considered more than education. Mehak was a lower middle class girl. Mehak ,her mother and grandfather was living with her uncle and aunt and their family (her three daughters) in a house of four marlas . No one except her grandfather loved her . She was known as a burden for her aunt and uncle and was not considered good like others. After the death of her father she had no one even her mother couldn’t do anything . But Meh...

16 likes 9 comments 9
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The Gift of Happiness

Submitted to Contest #63

Opening the black gates of the open area inside the shopping complex, Shubhroto firmly held his belongings under his arms. There was hardly anyone in the complex yet, as it was merely 7.30 am. In the shopping complex where Shubhroto and his wife Swati used to run their coffee shop, most of the showrooms and shops would normally open much later. Shubhroto having retired from the army about a decade back, still followed an active regime. Although being in their late fifties, age has taken its toll on both of them. Swati taking heavy breat...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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The Third Lotus Prince

Submitted to Contest #63

Trigger warning: Description of suicide, not super graphic, but just something to be warned about.By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. All around me, my temple had gone up in flames.However, we are not up to that part yet.Let us start, as all lives start – with my birth.My Mother, Lady Yin, was pregnant with me for three years and six months.The night before I was born, she had a dream. There was a Taoist, he placed something in her bosom and told her it was a child she should take.My Mother, probably half sick of this pre...

48 likes 54 comments 54
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"The journey mate"

Submitted to Contest #63

"The journey mate"By: Syed Nasim Aejaz AshkThey were about two hundred and fifty in number and constantly flying at high speeds towards the destination. The intensity of hunger and thirst had exhausted their body strength to a great extent, but ignoring their surroundings and fatigue they were flying at lightning speed. Though he was also tired, but in view of the fear that his companions might lose the courage, he was showing a little too much self-confidence, hence, he eventually increased his speed gradually, neglecting the intensity of h...

86 likes 77 comments 77
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The Lesson of the Daidai

Submitted to Contest #63

The afternoon came slowly, like a young blossom turning glory red in the dusk. The coffee shop was dark inside and time seemed to run slower, like the heat had taken time in hand and stretched it out. Outside the street was busy and chilled with cold rain, but inside it was gently warm, quiet, and peaceful. Avery finished pouring daidai batter into muffin tins, slid them into the oven, and pushed her short hair back from her face. She stood for a moment behind the counter with her hands on her hips. There were few people inside the Star...

84 likes 21 comments 21
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Sleeping Window

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire— heaving a breath, I closed my eyes and returned inside. I forgot it was fall; I was tired. In truth, I wanted to write. Well, to be more precise, that was my way of saying that I wanted to draw. In a way, it is basically the act of writing down something, not in words, but in images. But, of course, that still is, in all forms of technicality, basically drawing. And so, taking up my sketchbook, sharpened pencil in hand, I set myself at the window seat and opened the window— where the S...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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Human Cycle

Submitted to Contest #62

I sat in the waiting room, mentally preparing myself for my life’s greatest adventure. I had already physically prepared for what will happen today, but no amount of meditation has eased my nerves for the moment ahead. “Julieta Bautista?” I hear my name called and I stand, shakily to my feet. The woman smiles. Her cold violet eyes contrast with her warm inviting smile. “We’re ready for you.” I nod my head trying to return a smile, but failing. She leads me down a long plain corridor. The overhead lamps swinging with the tremors of the gr...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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Thousand Letters to Celestina (An Original Story)

Submitted to Contest #62

It was a fair, sunny day in the year of 1876, there is a woman named Celestina, her beauty is that of a radiant sun. A sun so bright that has captivated me from the moment that I have laid my eyes on her.The beautiful woman, adorned with luxurious colonial-era, Spanish clothing sips a cup of the finest coffee in the country.Suddenly, The bark of the tree from which I am sitting at shatters in half and I now find myself writhing in pain. My butt cheeks swelling from the fall from the Narra tree I was sitting from.Celestina noticed and immedia...

53 likes 17 comments 17
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More Than A Number

Submitted to Contest #61

The perfume from the jasmine brings back memories of my early childhood. I had been playing in our small garden, the jasmine in bloom, when they came to take me and my sister. It’s one of the earliest memories I have of my real mother, as she stood there next to my father and allowed them to take us away. How did she feel that day? How did she feel as my father showed the two women which two children should be taken? For me, I know it would have broken my heart to have a child taken so, but my parents, my real parents, th...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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power of a two by two stall

Submitted to Contest #61

Another day passed mopping floors at ‘the plaza’, God! I hate summer here , first of all summer in Chicago is not actually summer , it’s still cold. I don’t drink, even though I am 32 and I live alone , I mean there is literally no one to tell me I cant , I am grown man but every time this thought comes to my mind of drinking I just remember my mother back in Pakistan and the promise I made to her , “you are going just to to earn money , nothing else and nothing more , don’t forget you're roots , you are a Muslim and...

10 likes 0 comments 0
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Aashi Dey's Peach "Punch"

Submitted to Contest #61

Had she been sore that day? That was a phase that seemed to have passed long ago.  She spent these days being rather desolate. She sat against the cane sofa, the atmosphere in the living room was that of ecstatic happiness, excitement and pomp. It had been years since she witnessed anything of that sort, though she was away, she could say, there wasn't much happening at home. Her mom, dad and brother had attained almost a saintly devotion, they had been thriving, her brother was preparing for what most people claim to be amongst the tou...

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The boy who cannot return

Submitted to Contest #61

                        THE BOY WHO CANNOT RETURN Today morning I received the invitation. It was beautiful. In the background of roses and jasmines, it contained an invitation to the ex-students of class VII of the Infant Jesus High school, Bangalore. It depicted the photographs of 28 young boys and girls brimming with innocence and happiness. The photographed encircled in the borders of the invitation. The Head Master a...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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Evil's Mischief

Submitted to Contest #61

Li Jie had always believed that humans were born with good and only existed to spread kindness. He had lived his entire life believing no one could be greater than the good, hence in his eyes, evil was always inferior. His theory was proven wrong when he laid on his deathbed and one after another, his own family whispered words that nearly shattered his soul. "I killed Bao". "We killed him with our own hands". "We took his body and burned him alive". Bao was Li Jie's apprentice, his only student. Bao loved art, he was a very delicat...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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Border Conspiracies

Submitted to Contest #51

Eli perched at the edge of an old rusty metal railing, both legs stepping above its lowest beam. Her thick brown curls struggled to break free from the black hair-lace that was knotting them together behind her neck in a ponytail. The railing was the only thing that separated her from the edge of a cliff.The Muarawetan fishing bay stretched a few meters ahead of her. She picked a viewpoint and grabbed the vintage wooden binocular that had been dangling on her neck. She scanned through it; her new extended view now went past a sea wall that s...

18 likes 6 comments 6
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Dojo at the Mountain Summit

Submitted to Contest #49

Master Zayo – the name which echoed greatness and honour across the land of the rising sun. The world was vast, yet tales of his might and victory swept like gale winds across the oceans and foreign soils. His legend told shared by children on the playgrounds, who one day dreamed of being heroes as epic as him – spearing tales of how the great martial artist vanquished all evil that dared defy peace, and spread wisdom like a prophesied messiah. Many had lost their lives scaling the unforgiving mountain in the valley of shadows to reach ...

85 likes 26 comments 26
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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