{"id":165712,"date":"2023-10-06T12:40:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T16:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=165712"},"modified":"2023-10-06T15:13:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:13:32","slug":"dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/","title":{"rendered":"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Yidingmu Police Station, Taipei, the morning of February 28, 1947. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Hou Hsiao-hsien\u2019s A City of Sadness (<\/em>1989) was digitally restored and rereleased in theaters across Taiwan earlier this year. Running two hours and thirty-seven minutes, the melancholic art-house film shows in painstaking detail the dissolution of a Taiwanese family prompted by political regime change following World War II. In 1945, the Japanese surrendered Taiwan; soon after, Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s Kuomintang party (KMT) would retreat from China to the island, violently suppress native uprisings, and officially claim the island as its own in 1949.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis island is so pitiful. First the Japanese and then the Chinese. They all rule us but none take care of us,\u201d one of the film\u2019s protagonists says in Taiwanese, a language that the KMT banned from schools. The English subtitles were less subtle: \u201cThey all exploit us and no one gives a damn.\u201d<\/p>\n

I attended a sold-out showing on opening weekend. In a somewhat surreal coincidence, the rerelease date coincided with the one-year anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. Just hours before I saw the film, I\u2019d biked to a public square where a crowd of mostly Taiwanese people waved Ukraine\u2019s blue-yellow striped flag. When Ukraine\u2019s anthem was played, everyone put their hands on their hearts. One Ukrainian mother said to me, \u201cTaiwanese people know what it\u2019s like to have a crazy neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today China claims it will take Taiwan by force; the threat of regime change is never far. In Hong Kong, where the film was also rereleased this year, protesters, among them high schoolers, have been imprisoned and sentenced for subversion. But to be fair, in Taiwan\u2014a country ruled by six successive colonial powers\u2014it would be difficult to find a release date that didn\u2019t <\/em>take on a deep sense of resonance and foreboding. The year City<\/em> was released, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party killed thousands of nonviolent protesters in Tiananmen Square. In contrast, Taiwan was on the cusp of freedom. It burst with national awakening. Soon, activists who read Mandela in prison would be released and run for election\u2014and win.<\/p>\n

City<\/em> was the first film in Taiwan to represent the events of 2\/28\u2014a sequence of numbers known to every Taiwanese person today, though for decades it could barely be whispered. On February 27, 1947, a state agent beat a Taiwanese woman selling contraband cigarettes. When a crowd formed to defend her, a policeman fired into it, killing a man. People across the island began to revolt on the twenty-eighth, and in the days following, an estimated eighteen to twenty-eight thousand people were killed by the KMT. For nearly four decades, in a period now known as the White Terror, Taiwan would be ruled by a one-party dictatorship\u2014the second longest time any country has been subjected to uninterrupted martial law. (Syria has recently surpassed Taiwan.)<\/p>\n

In the years following City\u2019s<\/em> release, Taiwan has become a democracy. It\u2019s considered the freest country in Asia and among the freest in the world. Just this week Freedom House released a report measuring people\u2019s access to political rights and civil liberties. Taiwan is ranked sixth in the world, above both France and the United States. China is listed among the bottom ten nations. Whereas \u201c6\/4\u201d is scrubbed from the internet in China\u2014even the candle and ribbon emojis disappear from the available pool on phones and computers on June 4\u2014the Taiwanese government has made 2\/28 a national holiday. Schoolkids get that day off.<\/p>\n

City<\/em> views the trauma of regime change through the stories of two fictional Taiwanese families. In the first, the oldest of four sons leads a local gang whose territory is stolen by mainland Chinese rivals. At the start of the film, he wonders at the misfortune that has befallen his brothers\u2014one has become a lunatic, another went missing in the Philippines while serving as a war medic for Japan, and the youngest is deaf. \u201cMaybe my mother\u2019s grave is not in the right spot,\u201d he muses in Taiwanese.<\/p>\n

The other family is a brother\u2013sister pair, Hiroe and Hiromi; even their names nod to their cultural affinity with the now-ousted Japanese. Hiromi is a nurse; Hiroe is an intellectual-revolutionary with Marx on his bookshelf. He\u2019d lobbied for Taiwanese rights under Japanese colonialism and, under his new anticommunist Chinese overlords, ramps up his activism.<\/p>\n

The intersection of these families, and the heart of the film, is the tender love between Hiromi (played by Xin Shufen), whose diary provides the voice-over, and the deaf-mute photographer Lin Wen-ching (a strapping young Tony Leung), the youngest of the four sons. Lin\u2019s deafness literally and metaphorically reflects the silence enforced by the KMT. Lin meets Hiromi through Hiroe, who is his best friend. The young couple sends money to support Hiroe\u2019s dissident work. By the end of the film\u2014it\u2019s implied but never shown\u2014both men are executed by the regime. Hiromi will raise her and Lin\u2019s child alone.<\/p>\n

In City,<\/em> scenes unfold in Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Mandarin\u2014undermining the official narrative of a single national language. For that reason, too, diary entries, songs, notes, and diverse legends permeate the film. Like currents flowing against the tide, these are counterforces to the language of heads of state\u2014what Orwell called the enemy of sincerity.<\/p>\n

For survivors of state violence, Hou suggests, there are few resources, little information, and often only official lies. In one scene, a woman and her three children receive a piece of cloth from Wen-ching, who has just been released from prison on charges of collaboration against the regime. We don\u2019t know who this woman is; she appears just this once. We see a close-up of her face and, less clearly, her children standing behind her as she unfurls the cloth, sobbing when she reads the following words, written in dried blood:<\/p>\n

LIVE WITH DIGNITY,<\/p>\n

YOUR FATHER IS INNOCENT<\/p>\n

Who wrote this? Why was their father arrested? Was he executed? On each of these questions, Hou leaves us in the dark, though I believe he does so to make a point about the confounding, fragmenting force of state violence. Within this void the cloth tells the truth.<\/p>\n

Hou is interested in the private pains of upheaval. Prisoners write poems before they die. Hiromi writes in her diary. Wen-ching writes notes. The two lovers write to each other, having no other way to communicate. These texts appear in large block print that occupy the entire screen in a way that recalls old silent films.<\/p>\n

Why so much text? The film\u2019s screenwriters, Hou, Chu T\u2019ien-wen, and Wu Nien-jen, were born after the violent uprisings and grew up during a time when it was forbidden to talk about them. To write City<\/em>, they sifted through diaries, letters, and private archives. The film thus stands as a reflection\u00a0on what remembering feels like: sifting through text. That activity is soundless. You must imagine the lives of people who have dared to leave a trace.<\/p>\n

Consider, in contrast, the simple yet poignant narratives of the White Terror that have emerged in the mainstream news since government archives opened in the early 2000s. The BBC reported one such story. \u201cMy most beloved Chun-lan,\u201d a father wrote on the night before he was executed, to his five-month-old daughter, \u201cI was arrested when you were still in your mother’s womb. Father and child cannot meet. Alas, there’s nothing more tragic than this in the world.\u201d He wrote that in 1953. The government confiscated it and never delivered to his family. His daughter would receive it fifty-six years later, at age fifty-six. She cried when she read it. \u201cI finally had a connection with my father,\u201d she told BBC. \u201cI realized not only do I have a father, but this father loved me very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narratives like these have a beginning (arrest, execution), middle (prolonged, multidecade separation between father and child; suspended wondering), and end (cathartic reception of the letter; connection established). One of the central precepts of trauma healing holds that we reclaim events of loss through narrative. Hou refuses a narrative, thus refusing reclamation, suspending us in the psychic trauma of his generation.<\/p>\n

For this reason, perhaps, in Hou\u2019s films we don\u2019t always realize when a scene has ended. One moment which I love most is sensual and innocent: Wen-ching and Hiromi sit close together on the floor, looking at each other, delighted and full of longing: two shy, sensitive people finding their way to love. In the background, the old-timey German lied \u201cLorelei\u201d plays on a phonograph. Steps away, their male friends sit around a table, eating zongzi<\/em> (a sticky rice dish eaten in the summer). They complain bitterly of the bribery and corruption that marked and followed 2\/28, which has included nepotism; the KMT has fired locals\u2014calling them slaves to the Japanese\u2014and awarded those coveted government positions to family members.<\/p>\n

But the two gorgeous young lovers are in their own world, talking about the music. Hiromi explains to Wen-ching\u2014in a letter, written in her notebook\u2014the legend of Lorelei. He writes back, telling her he knew the song before became deaf, then recounts how it happened. He was eight when he fell from a tree. A happy kid who lived in his own world, he at first didn\u2019t even realize he had lost his hearing; his father had to tell him by writing it down. Hiromi looks surprised, and the camera cuts to a flashback, a child imitating a Beijing opera singer. This almost montage-like scene has no argument, no dramatic tension, no climax. It is all private logic. The effect is such that even the present moment of rapturous love has the feel of memory, recovered too late, useless yet still dazzlingly vivid.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When City<\/em> was first released, an estimated 50 percent of the country\u2019s population flocked to theaters to see it, resulting in the improbable box-office upset of a kung fu movie starring Jackie Chan. Early international acclaim for A City of Sadness<\/em> included the Venice Film Festival\u2019s Golden Lion Prize: City <\/em>was the first Chinese-language film to receive this honor. (In September, Tony Leung received a lifetime achievement award at Venice, where three of his films have won the Golden Lion, City <\/em>being his first.) Meanwhile, in China, City <\/em>was banned until 2012, when it received a small showing at a film institute in Beijing. This year, the digital restoration was shown at film festivals and in Beijing and Shanghai, marking the first time that ticket-buying audiences could see the film. The few showings available were immediately sold out.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite City\u2019s<\/em> canonical status in Taiwan, domestic critical reception was, and continues to be, uneven. Critics have argued that City<\/em> fails to show the scale or barbarity of the killings of 2\/28. It doesn\u2019t show, for instance, how masses of Taiwanese people on the streets were bundled into burlap sacks and tossed into the harbor. It doesn\u2019t show ordinary citizens getting stabbed by Chinese soldiers. It doesn\u2019t show the Butcher of Kaohsiung, as he was named, a Chinese general who sprayed machine-gun fire into a crowd. When Hou does show street violence, it is enacted by local gangs and not by the KMT government: a band of vengeful Taiwanese randomly beat up people while shouting \u201cDeath to mainlanders!\u201d This is a reference to the two million migrants from China to Taiwan after 1945, some of whom faced discrimination.<\/p>\n

Were critics right? Partially. For me, the harshest thing I can say about A <\/em>City of Sadness<\/em> is also the most unfair: it\u2019s no The Battle of Algiers<\/em>, a film that confronted with lucidity the totalizing character of violence. Violence cleanses: that\u2019s the ideology of its perpetrators, from the agents of the state to insurgent terrorists. Like City<\/em>, Battle<\/em> dealt with colonial occupation; like City<\/em>, Battle<\/em> dealt with its own country\u2019s watershed moment of the twentieth century. But Battle, <\/em>which premiered twenty-three years at Venice before City<\/em>, exposed with complexity the levers of power, portraying a French general and his rationale for torture with care. In contrast, you won\u2019t find in City<\/em> anything about Chiang Kai-shek, who famously said, \u201cI\u2019d rather kill a hundred innocent people than let one communist escape.\u201d The name of his campaign in China to exterminate leftists quite literally translates to \u201ccleansing social movement.\u201d Neither Chiang nor any high-ranking Chinese soldier appears in the film, much less articulates his strategy or beliefs; on occasion, a policeman or soldier rounds up dissidents or hauls someone off to get executed. In City<\/em>, the human origins of power appear shadowy, opaque, without substance.<\/p>\n

In Hou\u2019s defense,<\/em> City<\/em> would never have been released had it featured a Chinese general describing a program of cleansing and torture. Besides, Hou\u2019s style is elliptical and indirect\u2014which also happens to be useful to evade censorship. \u201cNothing is worse than having something there for the sake of exposition or explanation,\u201d he has said.<\/p>\n

What, then, are the politics of the film? Above all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions. Though many of the women in City<\/em> are seen performing traditional roles\u2014preparing vegetables in the kitchen, raising children\u2014Hiromi\u2019s diary provides the story of her inner life as well as the written narration of her family\u2019s story. The seasons change, from winter to summer to winter again, but she keeps writing. Similarly, despite Wen-ching\u2019s inability to speak and hear, he never stops observing his surroundings. The quiet takes in which we watch Wen-ching developing photos is a metacommentary on the patience required to witness the world with open eyes. For these two idealists, the mind triumphs in spite of physical and social stumbling blocks.<\/p>\n

They also both continue to contribute to Hiroe\u2019s doomed resistance movement. Three quarters into the film, Hiroe escapes prison and creates a little socialist utopia in the hills. When he\u2019s not harvesting rice\u2014trousers rolled up, stepping gingerly behind a water buffalo plowing a rice paddy\u2014he\u2019s writing pamphlets. These will spell his demise when he is eventually located, arrested, and executed by the KMT. But for now he has created a free world. When Wen-ching visits, he replies, \u201cIn prison I vowed to live for friends who have died.\u201d A few beats later: \u201cThe only thing that matters is your beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michelle Kuo is a writer and professor based in Taipei. She teaches<\/span> at National Chengchi University, and her book<\/em> Reading with Patrick was the runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68386],"tags":[68724,67827,8705,12872],"class_list":["post-165712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-reviews-review","tag-city-of-sadness","tag-featured","tag-films","tag-taiwan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness by Michelle Kuo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 6, 2023 \u2013 \u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness by Michelle Kuo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 6, 2023 \u2013 \u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-06T16:40:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-06T19:13:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"760\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"487\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michelle Kuo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michelle Kuo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michelle Kuo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e12e31a82c4d478913990a063d820e08\"},\"headline\":\"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-06T16:40:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-06T19:13:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\"},\"wordCount\":2456,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"city of sadness\",\"Featured\",\"Films\",\"Taiwan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"The Review\u2019s Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\",\"name\":\"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness by Michelle Kuo\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-06T16:40:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-06T19:13:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 6, 2023 \u2013 \u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg\",\"width\":760,\"height\":487},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e12e31a82c4d478913990a063d820e08\",\"name\":\"Michelle Kuo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a938c79e67e14880b3177e282234cb84fc7cd993daeb079345f14e3bcd31719?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a938c79e67e14880b3177e282234cb84fc7cd993daeb079345f14e3bcd31719?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michelle Kuo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/mkuo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness by Michelle Kuo","description":"October 6, 2023 \u2013 \u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness by Michelle Kuo","og_description":"October 6, 2023 \u2013 \u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2023-10-06T16:40:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-10-06T19:13:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":760,"height":487,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michelle Kuo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michelle Kuo","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/"},"author":{"name":"Michelle Kuo","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e12e31a82c4d478913990a063d820e08"},"headline":"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness","datePublished":"2023-10-06T16:40:37+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-06T19:13:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/"},"wordCount":2456,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg","keywords":["city of sadness","Featured","Films","Taiwan"],"articleSection":["The Review\u2019s Review"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/","name":"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness by Michelle Kuo","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg","datePublished":"2023-10-06T16:40:37+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-06T19:13:32+00:00","description":"October 6, 2023 \u2013 \u201cAbove all, I think, Hou describes the inherent worth of preserving a free mind amid totalitarian conditions.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/taipei.jpeg","width":760,"height":487},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/10\/06\/dare-to-leave-a-trace-on-city-of-sadness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dare to Leave a Trace: On A City of Sadness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e12e31a82c4d478913990a063d820e08","name":"Michelle Kuo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a938c79e67e14880b3177e282234cb84fc7cd993daeb079345f14e3bcd31719?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a938c79e67e14880b3177e282234cb84fc7cd993daeb079345f14e3bcd31719?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michelle Kuo"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/mkuo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165712"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165721,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165712\/revisions\/165721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}