Growing up in a small, riverside town, Little Bright is thrusted into the political whirlwinds along with his family during China's Cultural Revolution. When a reversal of the winds of reform blows through the land, however, he learns the once-forbidden tongue--English--which lends wings to his sense and sensibility. At college, he adopts a new English name, Victor. With the deepening of his knowledge of the English language, he begins to place...