Light and Shadow: Shoreless

Light and Shadow: No Shore is a travel memoir spanning seventeen years (2009–2026), written by Deng Zhifeng, as well as a personal map of the heart. The book follows the threads of "journeying" and "crossing": from an oath beneath the moon during a night voyage across the Bohai Sea in 2009, to a dangerous escape from a pyramid scheme in Haikou in 2010; from a silent swim across Fuxian Lake in 2012, to cultural questions raised on a journey from north to south in 2013; from a solo ride of thousands of miles against the light in 2014, to a warm return to Weizhou Island with family in 2015, and then to reflections on the borderlands of western Yunnan and the Longjiang Bridge in 2017. More than twenty cities, several relationships, and three beacons of family ties (Kunming, Tai'an, and Shenglang) come together in a long confession about love, fear, growth, and reconciliation.

With delicate, restrained prose, it sets geographic journeys alongside the passage of the soul: the cultural unease of feeling "unable to understand" before Qufu's forest of stone steles, the awe inspired by the legacy of generations around Hongcun's Moon Pond, and the warmth of family felt in the dumplings at Great-Uncle's home in Tai'an and by the kang bed at the Shenglang forestry station. The title, No Shore, is not an expression of nihilism, but an acknowledgment that we are always in the current: the shore keeps receding into the distance, and the crossing itself is what gives life meaning. Quiet yet weighty, this book is a sincere record for every soul out on the road.