Later in the novella, she revisits her childhood places and sees that her memories are not reality anymore.  The Zhengli Street that she knew is now four lanes wide and renamed Zhongshan Road.  She said, of herself, “you were lost” because so many familiar things were now unfamiliar.  Here the Tao Yuanming’s story “The Peach Blossom Spring” is quoted with the first line from it.  “During the Taiyuan Reign of the Jin Dynasty a fisherman of Wuling once rowed upstream, unmindful of the distance he had gone…” She uses that story as a metaphor for her own journey, which ends with both people never reaching that desired place, the utopia, again. Over time, she numbs herself to the pain of loss the next time she notice some place she used to know has changed.

One aspect that can change as much as one’s surroundings is faith. Within the Old Capital, the author brings up the decline of religious figures such as Zeus, shamans, and God (pg. 119). She is expressing the idea that faith can be lost and is lost in this era.

In Tao Yuanming’s “The Peach Blossom Source,” the readers experience the obtainment and loss of utopia through the fisherman. Set in the Jin dynasty (Chin – 300 CE), the story reflects the impact of the Warring States era and Qin dynasty (Ch’in – 200 BCE) on the society at this time. However, the story has more to say on human nature and idealism. The unplanned route and sudden discovery of the cave and village with blooming peach trees perfectly complements the definition of a utopia.  The idea of carefully planning a route to an imaginary place where everything is perfect is contradictory to the basic idea of a utopia – specifically the “imaginary” part. The name of the story even shows the utopian idealism with peach blossoms symbolizing the Chinese spirit, immortality, and longevity.

Although similar in appearance to cherry blossoms, peach blossoms carry a greater significance in Chinese culture.  The “Peaches of Immortality” of legend were said to grant longevity and eternal youth to those who ate them. Thus, peach blossoms signify longevity and prolonging life.  This is directly contrasted by cherry blossoms, which bloom, fade, and drop off of the tree quickly. One could say that cherry blossoms are more representative of real life, with the changing landmarks like Chu T’sien-hin experiences when she revisits Tamsui.      

There were many ideas in class as to why this was, such as that the utopia was lost because he paid too much attention to the village and told outsiders.  Other ideas were that searching for a utopia, trying to repeat the experience, may be disastrous since the faith in the utopia was lost with the other man who died before he could begin his search.  It was also suggested that utopia is only attainable after death, comparable to going to heaven. The men sent by the magistrate whom the magistrate told may not have been able to find the cave because their idea of utopias were different and thus the village wasn’t revealed to them.      

LAI Shengchuan, “Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Land”

Within the film, the audience encounters the consequences of time. The director of the play criticizes the actors for their lack of understanding, but at the same time finds difficulty in describing how to express some experience of a place you have never been; the female actor responds to the director with “you’re the only one among us who was in Shanghai in 1948”. This struggle represents generational differences and the type of loss that burdens the older generation of Taiwan. The director is the only one who can distinguish the essence of the Whampoa River in Shanghai  and the Tamsui River in Taipei.