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There's no doubt that Dorothy Tse's stories exhibit a  wonderful degree of colourful ideas and imagery if they are viewed simply as poetic surrealism. The dream-like quality of the writing is reminiscent of Kafka and Murakami, but there's a specific Chinese perspective and sensibility in their content and their cultural references. If you scratch beneath the surface however and divest the stories of the self-consciously imposed imagery that they have been dressed up in, the technique doesn't really provide any great depth of insight into their situations. Take ' The Love between Leaf and Knife ' for example. That's an evocative title, but essentially all the author has done is dress up what in reality is a dull domestic tale of a couple attempting to gain the moral ground and the upper hand in their relationship by renaming the husband and wife Leaf and Knife, and pushing the lengths they take their animosity to extremes. It doesn't alter the fact the un...