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.