Ten Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moons gathers sixteen phenomenal writers of the Chinese language in their English debut: eight fiction writers, six poets, and two essayists. Amongst these dazzling tellings, the planets are being pulled closer to the earth; a treasured classical fiction holds the secrets of the universe; shameful acts of urban ennui are committed over- and underground; a couple navigates the phantasmagoric border between life and death; the classrooms of the eighties and nineties are fleetingly free. Ranging from cityscapes to mountain ranges, ancestral lands to parallel worlds, these authors exhibit a panoramic vista of contemporary Chinese-language writing at its most imaginative and incisive, balancing intellectual power with lyrical enchantment to lend insight into a nation oscillating between tradition and modernity, apocalyptic visions and pedestrian loves, provocation and nostalgia, reality and dreamscapes.

Xuanzang should be known as one of the world's great heroes. His travels are legendary. He brought true Buddhism to China. His own book provides a unique record of the history and culture of his time. Yet he is unknown to most of us and even to most Chinese. footsteps, discover more about Xuanzang and restore his fame. So she retraced his journey from China to India and back. In the 8th century, crossing 110 kingdoms, he took 18 years. He opened up the east and west of Asia to each other - and to us. robbers with his teaching, his charm and his indomitable will. Against all odds he persuaded the Confucian emperors to allow Buddhism to flourish in China. understanding the Buddhist faith of her grandmother, recognizing also the passionate idealism of the communist beliefs of her own family and discovering her own beliefs.