An essay collection by Pai Hsien-yung (surname Pai), a Chinese/Taiwanese author. I read some of his short stories many years ago. To the western audience, Pai is probably most known for his gay novel. The longest, also the title essay, is a mini-memoir centered around the death of Pai’s lover and lifelong companion. Not a word of love is said, let alone sex, but the deeply felt emotions are all-pervading.
Another essay I find fascinating is the one about how he and his collaborators translated Taipei People, Pai’s short story collection, from Chinese to English. Occasionally I translate technical documents for friends for free, but literature translation is a totally different beast, something I find harder than writing.
The rest of the collection is not of much interest to me. Some topics are quite out of date.