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

410+ 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 6 of 28

Sila-pattikaram - ("The story of the anklet")

Submitted to Contest #221

Sila-pattikaram ("The story of the anklet") I recently read an English translation of the above Tamil epic purported to be written in 1 CE . This epic relates the revenge the legendary Tamil woman Kannagi wrecks on the Kingdom of the Pandyan Dynasty in Southern India. While watching the mesmerizing ballet from an old film noir rendition, couple of weeks later , subtle furrows of my mind were dredged up and the following episode from back when I was an engineering student in the 70s surfaced. Some of you may be...

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High Tea / High Desert

Submitted to Contest #220

The world was red, upon red, upon red. Not the artificial red of dyes and cautioned danger, but the rich, primal red only found in nature. The type of red one feels rather than sees, shades a sensation on the senses that grounds you to the very base of what it means to be human. The tiresome sun was bleeding from his place against the horizon, spreading red light across the already red desert. Antonia Cahoy cast her eyes from the shattered sky (ruby, scarlet, wine) to the path before her (vermillion, cardinal, carmine), though it w...

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The Culling

Submitted to Contest #217

“Ayame, please!” Hana whispers harshly into her daughter’s ear. “You don’t have to do this. There’s still time. I can get you out.” Hand in hand, fist clenched tightly around her daughter’s slighter frame, Hana scans the other Ryushi Clan tributes and their warrior parents for listening ears as they traverse the dark tunnel towards the arena floor. “Mom, no.” Ayame shakes her head, squeezing her mother’s hand once as she whispers back. “I have to do this. You know that. It’s the only way.” “You’re wrong.” Hana stops, pulling her daughte...

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A Time to Kill

Submitted to Contest #215

Camp Page in Chun Cheon Korea was the perfect place to pop my cherry. For six months, I’ve been training to be a sniper and now I’m finally getting my first assignment. It was a Saturday morning in 1953, when Major Bak called me into his office. “Here is a permanent pass for you. It will get you in and out of the front gate anytime, night or day. Now I want you to meet your partners. When you go out the gate, go straight ahead to the top of the hill. There, you will see several stores on the right on Myong Dong Road. Go there and find the ba...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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That Summer We Ate Watermelon on the Peak of Da Sia Shan

Submitted to Contest #214

In contrast to the cool and refreshing air of San Francisco, which made exercise light, the humid, sub-tropical heat of Dan Sia weighed on Sue like a wet blanket. Her breathing was laborious and her steps felt heavy, as she made her way up the steep steps leading to the distant summit. Wen taunted her slow pace from above. Although he was already in his fifties, her younger brother never missed an opportunity to tease her. He recalled nostalgically of the days he sprinted up the mountain in thirty minutes with a larg...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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Anand's Lamp

Shortlisted for Contest #213 ⭐️

Anand knew the snake wanted to eat him, even if his mother said it only ate the cats and dogs scurrying over the trash pile. Anand held up one open hand, and then a single finger on the other, examining the years of his life in nicked and dirty scars. His family was Dalit, the untouchables, only suited to garbage collection, or cleaning toilets, as anything they touched turned to trash. He wanted to get to two full hands, and then he could join the men picking up the trash in town and not battle against the snake for its ...

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The adventures of Nemo, the plush fish

Submitted to Contest #211

Nemo was a plush fish with the same figure of the young clownfish in Disney’s cartoon “Finding Nemo”. He was born among other cotton animals in a workshop in Saigon. After only one day staying in the workshop, he was moved to a truck to go to the seaport, where they put his box in a container. After being filled with boxes, the container was loaded on board. Nemo asked other cotton animals where they were and where they were going but no one knew. Nemo only felt a strange taste: the salty taste of the sea. Nevertheless, he didn’t know what t...

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Red flows in both

Submitted to Contest #208

Once there was a daughter of a mother and a mother of a daughter.  As the daughter I was taught the same as she was. To live for my parents as my actions bear bigger consequences for them. To listen to her advice to become a proper woman, and to perform for the world to see and praise my mother for it. One day my mother came home to my self-bleached hair. She hollered and yelled at me with the fury of desperation. By bleaching my hair I had just washed away all of her teachings and her worth. I did not understand at the time. I started ...

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Dinner At The Jade Palace

Submitted to Contest #207

“Ta made niao!” Goddamn it. My uncle’s cousin was standing over his niece’s boyfriend, the new hire in charge of the wok station. “You call this dan dan noodles.” The young kid was looking up at him nervously. “Yes?” The back of his head was hit. “That was a rhetorical question. This is limp noodles.” I could see the vein popping out from his neck. “What are you doing! Start again.” There was a scared hurry to dump the wok contents out and pour in new water set of actions occurring right in front of me. I probably should step in before the v...

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A happy fault

Submitted to Contest #206

Murasaki Yuki was a sad sort of girl, with a round face, long lashes, and large, melancholy eyes. She was never sure why her parents had chosen to write her given name, Yuki, with the Japanese characters for happiness. Perhaps, they had been filled with happiness at the birth of their first child so late in life, after so many years of trying. Perhaps, they had thought Yuki would be a happy child. Or perhaps they had hoped that their precious baby would bring happiness to her parents in their old age. All of these reasons seemed to...

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Bani's Tree

Submitted to Contest #205

Code 278.43A. That’s where ‘Lady Grace’ was, right behind the stunted tree that hit the ceiling and hid an owl in its hollow. In a ladylike fashion, Bani hopped on the plastic rocks to cross the fake river in the middle of the library. So as to not catch a whiff of stubbed cigarettes hidden in pockets of grey-lipped men in the room, Bani held her breath as she performed the difficult crossing manoeuvre. Despite her greatest efforts, Bani never made it across to the other side. Later, on the flight, she reasoned that she was stopped so that...

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The Ritual of 369

Submitted to Contest #205

Warning: Contains a scene of extreme violenceThere was an old-fashioned blackboard in the dining room. And just like the wooden times there were broken chalks and duster on the ledge.Soh picked a half-broken one up as puffs of calcified dust fell on her tiny palm. Then she got up on a small stool and scrawled:Let there be world peace!Let there be world peace!Let there be world peace!Then she took the duster and wiped it away.Everyday before breakfast she does it. Long before the others wake up. Some wants a million dollars. Some wants a Beve...

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Six Syllables

Submitted to Contest #205

In Japan, everyone says “Itadakimasu” before each meal. It's an unquestioned tradition. There are many such rituals in Japan: the aisatsu greetings for good morning and good night, bowing to superiors, the proper way to use chopsticks, that go back so far in Japanese history, people can’t imagine it being any other way.Everyone except for our son Kenji. He likes to make his own rules and has long ago decided uttering six syllables before eating is an inefficient waste of everyone's time.In kindergarten, his teachers said, “He refuses to say ...

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The Last Letter of Genzai Toshi

Submitted to Contest #205

[I used google translate for the names of the characters, I hope that no offense is given to the Japanese people for the crude use of their language] The brush rises from the sealed envelope, leaving a black blooded wound on the paper. Soon, the tantou waiting in its sheath will do the same on his abdomen. “Dear Atarashi, my son. Every animal is born with the need to make their life as good as possible. We all strive for our survival, for our betterment and for our happiness; yet the mark of an honorable man is to extend this to the ...

17 likes 3 comments 3
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A wedding and a love affair

Submitted to Contest #202

I was invited to five weddings that month. But this wedding was not similar to others. It was my first love’s wedding. When I knew she would get married, I felt nothing. It made me surprise and be a little harassed. She used to be my whole world. We had a lot of memories together. I thought I would be so sad if she marries someone else but the reality was different. Perhaps, time blurred my feelings of her. I received her invitation on Facebook and clicked “Join” indifferently. But when I put my feet on the hotel lobby, I began regretting. I...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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