"The Scent of Jasmine Tea - Tales from the Orient” - the 2026 Story Event Official Support Thread

[ChloeTzang]

"The Scent of Jasmine Tea - Tales from the Orient” - is officially on as a "One-Off" Story Event for 2026

This post opens the Official Support Thread

The “go live” date is Friday 31st July 2026, so you've got a whole 9 months to conceive, gestate, think, contemplate, plan and write for this one.

"He wanted to go to the East; and his fancy was rich with pictures of Bangkok and Shanghai, and the ports of Japan: he pictured to himself palm-trees and skies blue and hot, dark-skinned people, pagodas; the scents of the Orient intoxicated his nostrils. His heart beat with passionate desire for the beauty and the strangeness of the world"

The Setting

The Orient from the eariest days of European contact (the Portugese, the Spanish, Shogun...) up to the end of the colonial era in the 1960's (including the Vietnam War), stretching across from Japan and Korea to Burma and everything in between - south through China, IndoChina, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma. (I've excluded India deliberately, as being very different in culture from the Orient. It' debatable of course, but my view is that including India broadens the scope too much and I'd like to keep this event focused on Northern and South Eastern Asia).

It's an interesting and intriguing period in history, it's on the cusp of the greatest cultural upheaval in Asian history, traditional Asian values colliding with modern influences from the west, an Asian superpower crouching on their island redoubt eyeing their neighbors with evil intent...and on the mainland, a China struggling to throw of the yoke of colonialism and once more take its place in the world....not to mention all the smaller countries and the colonial powers. The Portugese in Macau, the British in Hong Kong, French Indo-China, the Dutch in Batavia and the East Indies, the foreigners in Shanghai....


The Theme

Romance. War. Love. Seduction. Violence. Betrayal. East meets West, but also East meets East or West meets West in the orient, but in general with that colonial emphasis, and with that seductive blend of east and west. With everything that was going on, there's also scope for the ongoing war in China, White Russian refugees, missionaries in China, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, the headhunters of Sarawak, you name it!

Romance. War. Love. Seduction. Violence. Betrayal. Those seductive Vietnamese girls, Saigon, Hanoi, wealthy chinese and their white girls, a la L'Amante, and as for Malaya and the Dutch East Indies- those rubber planters and their sleeping dictionaries.... Borneo, the land of the White Rajah, Burma, foreigners in Japan, the whorehouses and brothels of Shanghai, China....gunboats on the Yangtze, Shanghai, Canton, perverted missionaries in the interior. So much scope....so many stories....

Romance. War. Love. Seduction. Violence. Betrayal. Think Somerset Maugham and The Painted Veil (1925), The Casuarina Tree (1926) and Ah King (1933). Anthony Burgess and The Malay Trilogy. Graeme Green and The Quiet American. Bernard Fall and Street Without Joy. Movies like The Sleeping Dictionary, and L'Amante (The Lover), just to supply a few examples. There's many more, far too many to list. Even Roanapur if you're so inclined.

Have fun! Be Creative! Enjoy!

This thread is to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE authors to enter their stories in this 2026 Story Event. If you have any questions, post them here, and someone will answer. It might be me, it might be someone else, but don’t be shy. Ask. There’s no such thing as a dumb question. And if you’re still shy, PM me. I’ll answer. LOL. I always do.

If you’re a first time writer, or this is the first time you’re thinking about doing a story for an “Event” or a Competition on Literotica, hey, don’t be stressed about it. We’ve all been there, and a “story event” like this is a great way to test the waters without getting into the competitiveness of a writing competition. This ain’t a competition, it’s an exhibition, it's an event, it's open invitation to everyone, from the complete novice to the writers that have been here since the dawn of Literotica and really, if you need any encouragement - you have to start somewhere, so if you're still hesitating, just do it. You'll find plenty of encouragement - we all started somewhere and what better place to get started than a non-competitive writing event with a common theme to inspire you.

Also, there no scores, no placing, no judging, and no prizes. This is just writing for fun with a bunch of other people doing the same thing. If you’re not sure about what to do, how to submit your story, or anything at all, just ask here. We’ve all been there, we’re a bunch of very helpful people, and we like to pass it on.

So without further ado, are you interested in writing for the 2026 “The Scent of Jasmine Tea - Tales from the Orient” Story Event? If you are, get started! You've got 9 entire months to get something done! First time writers and veteran Literoticans alike are invited and encouraged to participate. You’ll be in good company

Submission deadline: July 15th-30th (stories submitted & posted)
Event date: final anthology list posted on Friday July 31st 2025

The rules are really simple
1. Stay more or less with the theme but feel free to interpret it however the heck you like. As long as it's set in the Orient anywhere up to the 1960's, you're good.
2. You can write in any category and any length, as long as you keep in mind Rule #1
.3. Please include “Scent of Jasmine Tea 2026” in the notes field. Please use this exact wording so Laurel can identify the entries.
4. Please use “Scent of Jasmine Tea” and "Tales from the Orient" as story tags
5. You can submit anytime from 15th July 2025 on, but all entries need to be submitted by 11:59pm, Thursday 30 July, 2025.
6. All stories will Go Live on Literotica on Friday 31st July 2025 (or maybe sooner if Laurel wants to spread them out....)

So what are you waiting for? Next year? Get started now! Every single one of these events has been a lot of fun for all of us who wrote stories for them, and there's been quite a range of stories!

And lastly, this Event is dedicated to the memory of one of our long time authors who passed away recently. KeithD (sr71plt, aka Pilot). Keith spent a considerable amountof time in South East Asia and wrote quite a few stories set there. Sadly, he's not around to contrubute to this event with another one, but his presence is missed. RIP Pilot. You live on in your stories and in our memories.

 

[Actingup]

Wow - what an event! A huge challenge. One thing to get guidance on... obviously this period of history also includes some awful events. The Rape of Nanjing, the use of atomic bombs on civilians, the Burma Railway, the Great Leap Forward, the start of the Cultural Revolution, the Dutch East India Company, etc etc. Some of that history will be contested. Any advice on how to ground the stories in history without it becoming a controversial distraction? Should we cite our sources, for example?

 

[ChloeTzang]

Wow - what an event! A huge challenge. One thing to get guidance on... obviously this period of history also includes some awful events. The Rape of Nanjing, the use of atomic bombs on civilians, the Burma Railway, the Great Leap Forward, the start of the Cultural Revolution, the Dutch East India Company, etc etc. Some of that history will be contested. Any advice on how to ground the stories in history without it becoming a controversial distraction? Should we cite our sources, for example?

Depending on what I'm writing, I sometimes list the source material at the end along with an intro and a comment at the end - look at my "Tales from Old Shanghai" for an example of how I do it.

That said, I wouldn't worry about it too much - let your story tell the story - if it's controversial - write it in a way that covers the controversy - and if its' real history as part of he story, so much the better.

There was a lot about the colonial era in Asia that was NOT pleasant, just go ahead and tell your story the way you want to write it. Keep in mind Lit's guidlines tho - an excplict description of incicents during the Rape of Nanking might be a bit much, as would the effects of the use of atomic bombs if you got specific.

This for example is from "Never Ending Love"

I too share those dreams of a new China where the poor do not starve to death on the streets by the thousands nightly. I dream of a new China where girls such as Hua and I are not forced into prostitution or sold for the pleasure of men, where children the age of my little brothers and sisters do not slave in the silk factories, forced to scoop the silk from the vats of boiling water in which it is separated with their bare hands, until their skin is scalded and burnt and hangs in tatters as they weep with pain, day after day, week after week, month after month until, all to soon, they die.

There is more. So much more. So much suffering in our poor land. There are the children forced to work in factories where their gums turn blue and they die from lead poisoning within two or three years and for that short time, all they are rewarded with is barely enough food to survive on and a corner to die in. The young women from the countryside who are forced into prostitution. The coolies who pull the rickshaws, they are lucky to make enough each day to rent their rickshaw and buy enough rice to live on, sleeping in the streets wherever they can find a space, for they rent those rickshaws by the shift. Those coolies die from sheer exhaustion after only a few years between the poles of the rickshaws they pulled.

Old people and children, useless mouths whom their families cannot afford, they are abandoned on the streets. Abandoned to die, and die they do, by the thousands upon thousands every year. The little girls, the ones who are lucky enough to be pretty, they are far too often sold into the brothels by their families, and in the brothels they slave as prostitutes. If they are more than pretty, if they are beautiful, they are sold as concubines to the men of wealth, both Chinese and foreign, who desire such things....In this Shanghai, there are men who desire worse, far worse things than mere prostitution. Under that thin veneer of cosmopolitanism and ostentatious wealth, Shanghai is a city of pain and suffering, a city of many victims,...."

So absolutely, go there if your story calls for it.

 

[Actingup]

Depending on what I'm writing, I sometimes list the source material at the end along with an intro and a comment at the end - look at my "Tales from Old Shanghai" for an example of how I do it.

That said, I wouldn't worry about it too much - let your story tell the story - if it's controversial - write it in a way that covers the controversy - and if its' real history as part of he story, so much the better.

There was a lot about the colonial era in Asia that was NOT pleasant, just go ahead and tell your story the way you want to write it. Keep in mind Lit's guidlines tho - an excplict description of incicents during the Rape of Nanking might be a bit much, as would the effects of the use of atomic bombs if you got specific.

This for example is from "Never Ending Love"

I too share those dreams of a new China where the poor do not starve to death on the streets by the thousands nightly. I dream of a new China where girls such as Hua and I are not forced into prostitution or sold for the pleasure of men, where children the age of my little brothers and sisters do not slave in the silk factories, forced to scoop the silk from the vats of boiling water in which it is separated with their bare hands, until their skin is scalded and burnt and hangs in tatters as they weep with pain, day after day, week after week, month after month until, all to soon, they die.

There is more. So much more. So much suffering in our poor land. There are the children forced to work in factories where their gums turn blue and they die from lead poisoning within two or three years and for that short time, all they are rewarded with is barely enough food to survive on and a corner to die in. The young women from the countryside who are forced into prostitution. The coolies who pull the rickshaws, they are lucky to make enough each day to rent their rickshaw and buy enough rice to live on, sleeping in the streets wherever they can find a space, for they rent those rickshaws by the shift. Those coolies die from sheer exhaustion after only a few years between the poles of the rickshaws they pulled.

Old people and children, useless mouths whom their families cannot afford, they are abandoned on the streets. Abandoned to die, and die they do, by the thousands upon thousands every year. The little girls, the ones who are lucky enough to be pretty, they are far too often sold into the brothels by their families, and in the brothels they slave as prostitutes. If they are more than pretty, if they are beautiful, they are sold as concubines to the men of wealth, both Chinese and foreign, who desire such things....In this Shanghai, there are men who desire worse, far worse things than mere prostitution. Under that thin veneer of cosmopolitanism and ostentatious wealth, Shanghai is a city of pain and suffering, a city of many victims,...."

So absolutely, go there if your story calls for it.

Thanks, Chloe - that's really helpful (and yes, powerful prose in your story).

 

[TheGreatOz]

Oh Jesus. My favourite topic. Right up my alley. I was born to do this and will definitely write something.

So many possibilities.

 

[EmilyMiller]

"The Scent of Jasmine Tea - Tales from the Orient” - is officially on as a "One-Off" Story Event for 2026

This post opens the Official Support Thread

The “go live” date is Friday 31st July 2026, so you've got a whole 9 months to conceive, gestate, think, contemplate, plan and write for this one.

"He wanted to go to the East; and his fancy was rich with pictures of Bangkok and Shanghai, and the ports of Japan: he pictured to himself palm-trees and skies blue and hot, dark-skinned people, pagodas; the scents of the Orient intoxicated his nostrils. His heart beat with passionate desire for the beauty and the strangeness of the world"

The Setting

The Orient from the eariest days of European contact (the Portugese, the Spanish, Shogun...) up to the end of the colonial era in the 1960's (including the Vietnam War), stretching across from Japan and Korea to Burma and everything in between - south through China, IndoChina, Indonesia, the Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma. (I've excluded India deliberately, as being very different in culture from the Orient. It' debatable of course, but my view is that including India broadens the scope too much and I'd like to keep this event focused on Northern and South Eastern Asia).

It's an interesting and intriguing period in history, it's on the cusp of the greatest cultural upheaval in Asian history, traditional Asian values colliding with modern influences from the west, an Asian superpower crouching on their island redoubt eyeing their neighbors with evil intent...and on the mainland, a China struggling to throw of the yoke of colonialism and once more take its place in the world....not to mention all the smaller countries and the colonial powers. The Portugese in Macau, the British in Hong Kong, French Indo-China, the Dutch in Batavia and the East Indies, the foreigners in Shanghai....


The Theme

Romance. War. Love. Seduction. Violence. Betrayal. East meets West, but also East meets East or West meets West in the orient, but in general with that colonial emphasis, and with that seductive blend of east and west. With everything that was going on, there's also scope for the ongoing war in China, White Russian refugees, missionaries in China, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, the headhunters of Sarawak, you name it!

Romance. War. Love. Seduction. Violence. Betrayal. Those seductive Vietnamese girls, Saigon, Hanoi, wealthy chinese and their white girls, a la L'Amante, and as for Malaya and the Dutch East Indies- those rubber planters and their sleeping dictionaries.... Borneo, the land of the White Rajah, Burma, foreigners in Japan, the whorehouses and brothels of Shanghai, China....gunboats on the Yangtze, Shanghai, Canton, perverted missionaries in the interior. So much scope....so many stories....

Romance. War. Love. Seduction. Violence. Betrayal. Think Somerset Maugham and The Painted Veil (1925), The Casuarina Tree (1926) and Ah King (1933). Anthony Burgess and The Malay Trilogy. Graeme Green and The Quiet American. Bernard Fall and Street Without Joy. Movies like The Sleeping Dictionary, and L'Amante (The Lover), just to supply a few examples. There's many more, far too many to list. Even Roanapur if you're so inclined.

Have fun! Be Creative! Enjoy!

This thread is to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE authors to enter their stories in this 2026 Story Event. If you have any questions, post them here, and someone will answer. It might be me, it might be someone else, but don’t be shy. Ask. There’s no such thing as a dumb question. And if you’re still shy, PM me. I’ll answer. LOL. I always do.

If you’re a first time writer, or this is the first time you’re thinking about doing a story for an “Event” or a Competition on Literotica, hey, don’t be stressed about it. We’ve all been there, and a “story event” like this is a great way to test the waters without getting into the competitiveness of a writing competition. This ain’t a competition, it’s an exhibition, it's an event, it's open invitation to everyone, from the complete novice to the writers that have been here since the dawn of Literotica and really, if you need any encouragement - you have to start somewhere, so if you're still hesitating, just do it. You'll find plenty of encouragement - we all started somewhere and what better place to get started than a non-competitive writing event with a common theme to inspire you.

Also, there no scores, no placing, no judging, and no prizes. This is just writing for fun with a bunch of other people doing the same thing. If you’re not sure about what to do, how to submit your story, or anything at all, just ask here. We’ve all been there, we’re a bunch of very helpful people, and we like to pass it on.

So without further ado, are you interested in writing for the 2026 “The Scent of Jasmine Tea - Tales from the Orient” Story Event? If you are, get started! You've got 9 entire months to get something done! First time writers and veteran Literoticans alike are invited and encouraged to participate. You’ll be in good company

Submission deadline: July 15th-30th (stories submitted & posted)
Event date: final anthology list posted on Friday July 31st 2025

The rules are really simple
1. Stay more or less with the theme but feel free to interpret it however the heck you like. As long as it's set in the Orient anywhere up to the 1960's, you're good.
2. You can write in any category and any length, as long as you keep in mind Rule #1
.3. Please include “Scent of Jasmine Tea 2026” in the notes field. Please use this exact wording so Laurel can identify the entries.
4. Please use “Scent of Jasmine Tea” and "Tales from the Orient" as story tags
5. You can submit anytime from 15th July 2025 on, but all entries need to be submitted by 11:59pm, Thursday 30 July, 2025.
6. All stories will Go Live on Literotica on Friday 31st July 2025 (or maybe sooner if Laurel wants to spread them out....)

So what are you waiting for? Next year? Get started now! Every single one of these events has been a lot of fun for all of us who wrote stories for them, and there's been quite a range of stories!

And lastly, this Event is dedicated to the memory of one of our long time authors who passed away recently. KeithD (sr71plt, aka Pilot). Keith spent a considerable amountof time in South East Asia and wrote quite a few stories set there. Sadly, he's not around to contrubute to this event with another one, but his presence is missed. RIP Pilot. You live on in your stories and in our memories.

View attachment 2571347View attachment 2571349View attachment 2571350

I don’t have the background (nor the time to acquire it) to write a story, but I hope it’s a successful event.