One of the most original voices of post-socialist China, novelist/filmmaker Zhu Wen has crafted a droll, surreal, and ironic tale in which East meets West . . . or does it? Thomas is a painter trekking through the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, and Mao the scruffy “innkeeper” who lodges him. Gradually, what appears to be reality shifts. Who is the butterfly, who is the philosopher?
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