Shanghai has been exposed to a great deal of outside influences
throughout its history. This novel features two stories about common
city dwellers living in its alleyways from the 1980s to the 1990s.
The first story follows a family through three generations from the
perspective of a character only known as "Black Bug." Sharp-tongued, but
soft-hearted, Black Bug's grandmother takes care of the family. When
Black Bug is young, his father wants to divorce his mother. As he grows
older, his grandmother is hospitalized under intensive care due to a
serious illness. Later, the family grieves the death of his grandmother.
Black Bug then begins to comprehend the love within his family despite
their gruff nature at times.
In the second story, Xiaoyu has a good job and a handsome boyfriend. She
decides to rent a small room on Jiqing Li, a typical Shanghai alleyway,
desiring to live a truly elegant city life. Within Xiaoyu's apartment
building, it's difficult to avoid the life of her neighbors. She finally
moves out of Jiqing Li realizing that life isn't so elegant there. The
residents have problems like everyone else, and put on a façade in an
attempt to hide them.
Behind these stories is the gap between the city and countryside, the
legacy of the political upheavals of the past, and the price that has
come with new found prosperity. These people who resided in the stone
gate houses represented the rapidly changing dynamics of the Shanghai
metropolis.
