Xi Xi, Hong Kong's foremost fiction writer, eloquently conveys the mood of the city during the 1980s in this collection of short stories. In the first half of the decade, the Chinese and British governments negotiated Hong Kong's fate, occasioning intense soul-searching and close scrutiny of their society among the general pupulation.

The old and the new, the real and the fantastic, Western culture and local perception are skilfully woven together here to create narratives of the hopes, anger and fears which gripped the people of Hong Kong in this crucial period of their history.