A red building surrounded by a body of water with a window glowing with light and a ladder that reaches the opening.
CDD20/Pixabay

The Waters Between Us: Himal Fiction Fest 2025

A short story

Glen Loveland bridges East and West through his work as a global HR strategist, memoirist, and cross-cultural navigator. His journey began in the corridors of American politics as press secretary to U.S. Representative Tom Udall, but took a decisive turn in 2007 when he ventured to China—a move that would reshape his understanding of both cultures. Over more than a decade in China, Glen ascended to senior HR leadership positions at multinational giants including Pearson Education and The Walt Disney Company, before making history as the first foreign executive to spearhead expatriate recruitment at China Global Television Network (CGTN), the state broadcaster. His unique position offered him unprecedented insights into China's media landscape and the complexities of cross-cultural integration in Chinese institutions. These experiences crystallized into his memoir, Beijing Bound: A Foreigner Discovers China, a work that captures both the absurdities and revelations of living through China's extraordinary transformation. Written with humor and honesty, the book offers readers an intimate window into the contradictions and discoveries that define the expatriate experience in contemporary China. Now based at Arizona State University's prestigious Thunderbird School of Global Management, Glen channels his bicultural expertise into mentoring the next generation of global leaders. He specializes in international student development, leadership cultivation, and the intricate dynamics of global talent mobility—drawing from his own transformative journey between two worlds. Glen's voice resonates across cultures, offering perspectives that can only come from someone who has lived, worked, and thrived in both American and Chinese professional environments.

Published on

This story is part of the Himal Fiction Fest 2025, a showcase of original Southasian speculative fiction.

A red building surrounded by a body of water with a window glowing with light and a ladder that reaches the opening.
Himal Fiction Fest 2025: Southasian speculative fiction

In the year 2087, New Dhaka rose 400 metres above the waters that had claimed Old Dhaka 60 years earlier. From my apartment in the middle tier, I could see both worlds: above, the gleaming spires where the directors lived, their homes fed by water pumped from below; and beneath, the sprawling network of floating villages where the water-workers lived, harvesting algae and operating the massive desalination engines that kept the city alive.

I belonged to neither world. As an archivist, I catalogued what remained of the drowned cities of Southasia – Mumbai, Chennai, Karachi, Colombo – all now existing only in digital memory and in the salvage brought up by the divers.

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