In honoring ordinary people and gestures, Chang reminds us of things taken for granted, of cramped train rides and eavesdropped conversations, the sounds and smells of cityscapes and markets.

“Big rain, isn’t it?”

“The ecology and economy of the region is under threat. This Transpacific Literary Project folio, Monsoon Notebook is for these essential, vanishing, and unruly waters.”

“Stay with the music, that’s all it’s about anyways.” A night with legendary Chinese jazz pianist Xia Jia.

“There’s nobody left in Chinatown, is there?”