For the millions of wah kiu or "overseas

Chinese," life in the world beyond China's borders is fraught with the

question of identity. In these stories and essays, written over the past

thirty years, Xu Xi explores the joys, fears, idealism,

disappointments, dreams and lives of the wah kiu. In Overleaf Hong Kong,

she takes us around the globe, from Southeast Asia to Europe to North

America to the Pacific, in her quest to address the problem of all wah

kius -- what does being "Chinese" mean once your ancestors have left the

homeland?