“She understood that beauty was a kind of currency better than money, at least for women of our generation” WomenBeauty Book:The Lost Century Source: The Lost Century
“We all know that joy and sorrow are entirely matters of fate and have nothing whatsoever to do with planning.” Fate Book:Salt Fish Girl Source: Salt Fish Girl
“One must take human form to engage in human affairs. It was difficult.” HumanFox Book:When Fox is a Thousand Source: When Fox is a Thousand
“The library was a great sprawling complex with rolls and rolls of paper tucked into many shelves. Between the reading rooms were courtyards with living fountains and singing birds and butterflies that would transform into handsome young women to guide or entertain anyone who stayed there any length of time. I saw one among the stacks, explaining an older style of calligraphy to the newly appointed Heavenly Marine Official of the South China Sea. In another wing, a librarian stepped from her chrysalis for the first time, reciting T’ang Dynasty poetry to the flowers. That’s how I knew I was in the right section.” MythologyLibrariesLibrariansChinese Literature Book:Salt Fish Girl Source: Salt Fish Girl
“Yes, I know doctors like me are supposed to believe in reason. I believe in reason! That doesn’t mean I have to believe in it to the exclusion of everything else! Lots of Chinese people believe in more than one thing. I’m no different from the rest of my people” ReasonBeliefChina Book:The Lost Century Source: The Lost Century
“That night the Salt Fish Girl came back looking exhausted and dishevelled. A Malaysian girl who worked at her factory had been stricken with hysteria, had gone to the toilet and begun screaming and tearing at her hair. She had been working at the factory for nearly three years and was half blind and bored out of her wits with the tedious repetitiveness of the work. Her hysteria had provoked others, until half the women in the factory were screaming and howling and throwing themselves against the walls in sheer frustration with the dreariness of their toil and the damage it was exacting from their once young bodies and once bright faces.” Women Workers Book:Salt Fish Girl Source: Salt Fish Girl