1. Chaoyang Liao, “Catastrophe and hope: two literary examples from Taiwan,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 3, no. 1 (2002): 64. This essay, while a bit heavy going in its theoretical formulation, is likely the most rewarding study of the novella in English.
2. San Mao (1943–91), a writer best known for her travel essays on the Sahara.
3. Zhang Guixing (b. 1956), a novelist born in Indonesia but educated in Taiwan.
4. Pai Hsien-yung (b. 1938), considered a master stylist, wrote of the melancholy of Taiwan’s dispossessed mainland refugees.
5. Should be “fifteenth-century.” 25
6. KTV (Karaoke TV), private karaoke rooms that were popular in Taiwan.
7. Chiang Kai-shek’s grandson, Jiang Xiaowu. 35
8. This line is inspired by 1 Corinthians 4 and Hebrews 11 of the New Testament, in which faith overcomes adversity.
9. Paris 1842.
10. Karl Marx. All citations are from the online translation (www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/preface.htm).
11. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book One (1776).
12. Jean Baptiste Say, Traité d’économie politique (1803).
13. Li Yuancu.
14. Hao Bocun.
15. Apparently to France, since she is referred to later as his “little French girlfriend.”
16. Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (1990), 14.
17. Ackerman, 61.
18. Ackerman, 60.
19. Longquan, the city in the previous line, was the name of a famous sword (Dragon Wellspring) in ancient times. The lines of verse come from a Jin dynasty (third to fifth centuries) “Music Bureau” poem, “Dulu pian.”
20. 1857.
21. From a poem by Cui Hao of the Tang.
22. Southeast Asia, as opposed to East Asia, as known in the West.
23. The Daoguang Emperor, 1821–51.
24. 1972.
25. This and all subsequent citations of Kawabata Yosanari’s novel Koto are from J. Martin Holman’s 1987 English translation, The Old Capital.
26. Last line not in the English translation.
27. From A Comprehensive History of Taiwan (Taiwan tongshi).
28. The Kangxi Emperor, 1662–1723.
29. Shen Baozhen, the last emperor’s tutor, promoted making the island a province.
30. The Qing official who signed the island away to the Japanese.
31. Takeshi Kaneshiro is a movie star born in Taipei to a Japanese father and a Taiwanese mother. He stars in Chinese-language feature films.
32. Qiong Yao (b. 1938), an author of popular romances.
33. Named after the founder of the Republic of China, Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen).
34. From Tao Yuanming, “The Peach Blossom Spring,” English translation in John Minford and Joseph. S. M. Lau, eds., Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations, Volume I: From Antiquity to the Tang Dynasty (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000). Excerpts here and below are taken from pp. 515–517.
35. One of the new political parties, such as the New Party, which had short life spans.
36. Authors, respectively, of The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon.
37. A Quanzhou, Fujian deity.
38. There is conflicting evidence regarding the construction and location of these no longer extant statues.
39. Memorializing the February 28, 1947 incident that led to the imposition of martial law.
40. Anti-KMT dissidents.
41. Promoted by then President Lee Teng-hui.
42. Former ROC President Lee Teng-hui’s Japanese name.
43. 1932, Heisei being the reign title of the current Japanese emperor, Akihito. The transplanting was carried out by the mayor of Taipei.
44. 1867.