Contents
I. Map of the Heart
What the Lotus Said
Where We Are Born
The Earthquakes in Taiwan
A Chinese Theory of Strings
In Shi Lin Night Market with My Lover
At Drunken Moon Lake
City of Eternal Spring
II. Exile
The Old Man
Noodles in Gong Guan with Godfather
Crushing Peanuts in a Hakka Village
Tea Plantations and Women in Black
Meeting Old Friends at Drunken Moon Lake
The Long Walk Up to Mao Zedong’s Retreat
Buying a History of the Language
The Fish We Ate
On Hearing that Michael Jackson Died
MRT
Da Mo Meets Ronald McDonald
The Three Black Goats of Mei Nung
On Visiting Yu Jian
In Shenyang City
Eating Vegetarian in Taichung with Chien Cheng Chen
III. Memories
Oya at He Nan Temple
Archaeology of Time: The Past
Archaeology of Time: Returning
Archaeology of Time: Convertibles
Archaeology of Time: Gambling
Archaeology of Time: Stations
Archaeology of Time: Shadows
Archaeology of Time: Waste
Recognition
IV. Intimacies
A First Love Poem
Night Walk in Taipei
The Abacus Speaks to the End of Geometry
Cold Mountain and the Maiden
Night at the Opera
What the Rains Bring
A Dream
America, a Challenge to Love
Nice to Meet You
Walking to the Tree of Ancestors
V. Soul Space
Daoist Festival of the Great Pig
Unspoken
Flux
Mind
Kings
Mirrors
Space
Truth
Nerves
Du Fu to Li Bai
Homesickness
The Workers in Beijing
Being Chinese
Notes
Acknowledgments