The author, Sharyn Huang (née Lin), was born in China in the mid '60s. As a child, Huang loved classical Chinese poetry (metered poems comprised of four or eight verses, each containing five or seven characters, with a strict tonal pattern and rhyme scheme) and music. Even though she immigrated to the United States at the age of 13, her family continued subscribing to the World Journal, a major Chinese newspaper, which helped her to maintain her Chinese language fluency in her adult years.
Huang started writing poetry as a teenager, writing her first four-verse classical poem at the age of 15. After college, Huang married and had two children. For years, she was busy taking care of the family and working as an accountant, but her enthusiasm for traditional Chinese poetry never died.
In 2012 after her children went to college, Huang returned to her interest in poetry writing, occasionally dabbling in essay writing as well. During a visit to China in 2017, Huang became acquainted with several elder poets from the town of Yong Chun and worked with them to continue developing her poetry.
Many poems in this collection are inspired by Huang's scenic travels, exploring beautiful mountains, lakes, waterfalls, valleys, deserts, beaches, and other stunning wonders of the world. Other poems recount pivotal moments or everyday observations from Huang's life, along with several poems conversing with the elder poets in China.
作者出生於上個世紀六十年代中，五歲之前住在中國的南方，上幼稚園後生活在北方，常自嘲自己的中文是南腔北調。自幼愛好古詩詞及音樂，十三歲隨家人移居美國，現定居於美南的牛仔之鄉休士頓。
