China

Anyone who has been married for a long time knows the meaning of this song. You can tell that the love is still there but its been pushed aside for so long that if they don't repair it soon it will be gone.Love can be very much like that many people think that once you fall in love thats it, but you have to give your love for the other person a moment of full attention everyday otherwise it will move away from either one or both of you, sometimes forever if you don't care if it stays or not.

"The fifths in the bass represent the beginning of an ancient ceremony. This ceremony took me to China, took me to the kitchen table where most wars get nurtured. I've always felt China and secrets are good friends. This song was the first written on Little Earthquakes."

She is an amazing songwriter and i basically think this song is about wanting to be closeto someone, and them not allowing themselves to be loved or to let someone get close to them. 'you build the great wall around you' 'in your eyes i saw a future togeter, but you just lookaway in the distance'

Sums it up perfectly.

This is a great song... It sounds to me like she is using the metaphor of the distance to China to describe her relationship and how they dont seem as close. Then it changes to the china on her table and how it looks perfect but isnt and its "funny how the cracks dont seem to show." Tori Amos is a remarkable musician.

one of my favorite tori amos songs i think, to me its about two people drifting away, and how one person is trying to get in but the other person shuts them out "and sometimes i think you want me to touch you but how can i when you build the great wall around you" "but you just look away in the distance..." and people think the relationship is working and stuff "funny how the cracks dont seem to show" but really they both know its falling apart.

This song has alot of figurative language in it. I really love that about Tori's songs because its interesting to find out what she means, like a puzzle, or even form your own personal meaning. This song uses references to different kinds of "china" several times. First in reference to the country of china, then "....when you build a great wall around you," could also bring to mind the Great Wall of China, and then the reference to china dishes. It's great.

did tori ever go through a divorce? china sounds like two married people drifting. a few other songs on little earthquakes i also interpreted as the divorce(d) situation.

"you're right next to me but i need an airplane... funny how the distance learns to grow" those are my favorite lines. it's so true that you can be sitting right beside someone and have it be no better than if you were thousands of miles away.

I absolutely love this song!

my intrepretation is of lust! Wanting something but not being able to have it.

There's so much longing in this song. It's so bitter-sweet and lovely.

And Tori is right about China and secrets, Just saying the word makes everything feel delicate and mysterious.

It sounds like an ending, like they're trying to make things better ("You say we'll take a holiday But we never can agree on where to go") but there's something coming between them, like they can't actually get close to one another.