Nostalgia Beyond the Horizon

Beyond the Sky is the first collection of essays by the Chinese-American writer Su Fei (born Wang Hongmei). Published in December 2014 by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing House, the book runs to roughly 167,000 characters and opens with a preface by Bai Shurong titled Traces of a Life. A native of Taihe County, Anhui Province, the author graduated from Anhui College of Traditional Chinese Medicine with a master's degree in dermatology and practiced medicine in Shanghai. After moving to the United States in 2003, she obtained a California acupuncture license, runs her own clinic, and has published essays in a number of Chinese-language newspapers and journals across North America. The collection is organized into several thematic sections. One gathers her observations of daily life in North America: the awkwardness of plum blossoms that go unappreciated in a foreign land, the flowers and trees before her door and her exchanges with neighbors, and the ways Chinese immigrants conduct themselves and feel in an adopted country. Several sections of travel writing record her journeys to Las Vegas, the Arizona wilderness and Death Valley, Sedona, and Tombstone, as well as to Oxford and Cambridge, Ireland, Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, Brazil, and Ecuador; setting wilderness against splendor, these pieces prompt reflections on life and desire. A section on homesickness looks back at winters in her native place, paulownia and persimmon trees, sweet-potato fields, and her school days, writing of family, old friends, and the memories of youth—the part of the book most likely to move immigrant readers. There is also a section of poems, including Nostalgia Beyond the Sky—for Sanmao, To Chang'e, and Another Tribute to Lady White Snake. The book consists chiefly of prose with a vein of poetry running through it; the writing is lively, and descriptions of scenery are often infused with the imagery of Tang and Song verse and the sensibilities of Chinese culture. The "beyond the sky" of the title refers at once to distant travels on the map and to a longing for home that is separated from the homeland by the breadth of heaven and earth.