| 1. History’s Alleyways |
| Yin Jiang: A Spell | 3 |
| Huang Lu: Hawkers of Olives | 4 |
| Lu Yi Shi: Song on a Rainy Day | 5 |
| Fan Sin Piu: Passing My Father’s Old Shop | 6 |
| Tao Jie: The Rings of a Tree | 7 |
| Han Mu: On this Land there once Lived | 9 |
| Yip Fai: The Old Chap in the Shop of Paper Effigies | 11 |
| Du Du: Going to the Movies | 13 |
| Stephen Soong: Trite Language | 15 |
| Xia Guo: The Emotional Appeal of Wonton Noodles | 20 |
| Xiao Si: A History in Books | 23 |
| 2. Local Habitations |
| Li Yuzhong: In the City, the Month of May | 29 |
| Shu Xiang Cheng: Cable Car on Victoria Peak | 30 |
| Margaret Ng: A Place of One’s Own | 31 |
| Xiao Si: Night Market | 33 |
| Tang Da Jiang: Having Tea | 35 |
| Wu Yin Ching: High Street | 36 |
| Choi Chi Fung: Sleepwalk in the Suburbs | 41 |
| Ma Kwok Ming: My Childhood in Tsuen Wan (excerpts) | 42 |
| Chan Chi Tak: Boat and Home | 45 |
| DEL: The Eight-thirty Train | 47 |
| 3. Distant Vistas |
| Liu Mu Xia: Skyscraper | 51 |
| Joseph S. M. Lau: Potato-eating Days (excerpts) | 52 |
| Gu Cangwu: Seeing Snow the Second Time | 57 |
| Wan Kin Lau: Sunday, Overcast | 59 |
| Yu Feng: The Kite | 60 |
| Chan Siu Wah: White Hair | 62 |
| Qiu Cheng: Return | 65 |
| Tsai Yim Pui: Decathlon | 66 |
| 4. China • China |
| Chen Jiangfan: Eventide | 71 |
| Li Kuang: Doors | 72 |
| He Da: The Times | 73 |
| Ronald P. Mar: The Prodigal Sons who Burnt their Harps | 74 |
| Kun Nan: Hail, the Steeds of Legend | 76 |
| Ji Hun: Loss | 80 |
| Dai Tian: The Story of the Stone | 81 |
| Yuan Yuan: Good Work Undone | 83 |
| Tsai Yim Pui: Six Martyrs | 86 |
| Wong Pok: On Forbearance | 87 |
| 5. Third Side of the Strait |
| Xu Su: Reading History Plays | 93 |
| Xu Xu: Freedom Not to Speak | 94 |
| Yu Kwang-chung: The Kowloon-Canton Railway | 97 |
| Laurence Wong: I Fear I May Grow Old before Frost Fall | 98 |
| Dong Qiao: This Generation | 100 |
| Lau Wai Shing: On Passing by Train through Tangshan | 103 |
| Chung Wai Man: Conch Shells in the Mist | 104 |
| Chan Chi Tak: Flag | 106 |
| Li Yue: Sacred Territory | 108 |
| 6. 1997 |
| Ah Lian: If I Had Roots Too | 113 |
| Ha Gong: The Legalization of Rape | 115 |
| Ha Gong: Getting High | 117 |
| Ji Hun: I’m Afraid I’ll Fall Asleep Before Dawn | 119 |
| Cheung Siu Por: Refused Entry to Peking University | 121 |
| Cheung Siu Por: Ears Pressed to Echo Wall | 122 |
| Chang Chak Yan: A Tale of Tangled Lines | 123 |
| Chan Chi Wa: Images of Hong Kong in the Tourist Association’s Publicity Films | 127 |
| 7. Of Life and Living |
| Shu Xiang Cheng: Ten Lines | 131 |
| Cao Juren: Having Drifted over the Sea of Life (excerpts) | 132 |
| Wong Man: Obdurate | 138 |
| Si Guo: Unemployed | 139 |
| Lau Wai Shing: A Moth in the Strip Light | 145 |
| Hui Tik Cheung: Falling | 147 |
| Chung Ling Ling: Those Aches and Pains | 148 |
| Wong Leung Wo: At Midnight, I Saw your Little Shoes Hanging at the Bathroom Window—to Ying-ying | 151 |
| Yin Jiang: Flying Ants over Water | 153 |
| Xi Xi: Elegy for a Breast (excerpts) | 155 |
| Tang Siu Wa: Stilled | 164 |
| 8. Fairground Mirrors |
| Ou Wai Ou: Love Takes a Bus | 169 |
| San Su: Paying One’s Last Respects is Both a Source of Anguish for the Living and an Insult to the Dead | 170 |
| Chai Wa Wa: True Confession | 173 |
| Wang Ting Zhi: Support the Construction of Daya Bay Nuclear Plant | 175 |
| Xiao Xi: ‘You Don’t Want Roses’ | 177 |
| Zhang Wenda: I’m All for Fox Fairies | 178 |
| Gaylord Kai Loh Leung: Homage to the Toilet | 181 |
| Xiang Zhuang: The Overdevelopment of Language | 183 |
| 9. A Grain of Sand |
| Yin Han: A Small Fish | 187 |
| Hung Chi: The Stewed-Pork Vendor | 190 |
| P. K. Leung: Not Just Another New Year’s Painting | 191 |
| Wu Yin Ching: Garment Reading | 192 |
| Huang Canran: Loneliness | 194 |
| Chan Tak Kam: Blind Fortune-tellers | 195 |
| P. K. Leung: Bittermelon | 198 |
| Fan Sin Piu: Afternoon Anxieties | 199 |
| Liu Wai Tong: To a Young Lady in an MTR Train | 200 |
| Lee Ying Ho: No Exit | 202 |
| 10. All are Written unto Me |
| Huang Canran: ‘Who am I?’ | 207 |
| Heather Tu: The Witch’s Song | 208 |
| Yip Fai: The Nut in a Drawer | 210 |
| Heather Tu: Denial of the Flesh | 211 |
| Xu Su: Giving up Smoking | 212 |
| Zhao Tao: My Life with Mirrors | 223 |
| Gu Cangwu: On the Tower | 227 |
| Ho Fuk Yan: Letter Writing | 228 |
| Wong Leung Wo: Still Unborn | 229 |
| Notes on Authors | 230 |
| Notes on Translators | 248 |
