This album, while inspired by the fictions of the 18th century Chinese novelist Cáo Xuêqín, also manages to offer a sorrowful grace for that terrifying year of 2020. Themes of fate, separation or sudden loss, death, ghosts, and the abuse of power recur. And what bitter consolation, that lovely final song and its refrain: "Those that see through the world/escape from the world."
Another brilliant record.