“China”, the third single from Little Earthquakes, was the first song written for the album and originally titled ‘Distance’. The song uses the country China, and the dinnerware, as metaphors for a decaying relationship. It was a minor hit in the UK, peaking at #51 (matching the original peak of the...
[Verse 1]
China, all the way to New York
I can feel the distance getting close
You're right next to me, but I need an airplane
I can feel the distance as you breathe
[Chorus]
Sometimes I think you want me to touch you
How can I when you build the Great Wall around you?
In your eyes I saw a future together
Oh, you just look away in the distance
[Verse 2]
China decorates our table
Funny how the cracks don't seem to show
Pour the wine, dear, you say we'll take a holiday
But we never can agree on where to go
[Chorus]
Sometimes I think you want me to touch you
How can I when you build the Great Wall around you?
In your eyes I saw a future together
Oh, you just look away in the distance
[Interlude]
[Verse 3]
China all the way to New York
Maybe you got lost in Mexico
You're right next to me, I think that you can hear me
Funny how the distance learns to grow
[Chorus]
Sometimes I think you want me to touch you
How can I when you build the Great Wall around you?
[Outro]
I can feel the distance
I can feel the distance
I can feel the distance getting close
China was written by Tori Amos.
China was produced by Ian Stanley.
Amos told Rolling Stone:
There’s been a side to me that’s always been drawn to heart-wrenching love songs. And sometimes I find that you don’t get those necessarily just in the contemporary singer-songwriter world, but also with musical theater, Gershwin, classics. I think that ‘China’ probably cam...