The eight short stories of Dirty Things reflect various time periods and aspects of Taiwan, but share a common focus on the sexual orientation of the gay men illuminated within their refracted images. Notably, the doubts, anxieties, isolation, and queerness that one would rationally assume to belong exclusively to this minority group, with the right perspective, become emblematic of the majority. Chen Po-Ching’s no-holds-barred prose drips with characteristic intransigent wit, his taste for the absurd and daring leaps freeing Dirty Things from the restraints of convention. At the same time, his writing is an astonishing record of the ordinary world and its inhabitants, its puns and earthy jokes melding insight with self-mockery.