• Introduction
The Journey Home
As Asians set down new roots around the world, home is no longer a fixed destination, explains Pico Iyer. It is as much a favorite dish, a memory or an idea as it is an old house. In this special issue, TIME invites some of the Asian diaspora's top writers to embark on physical and mental voyages of return
• Philippines
Ghost Town
Spirits from a childhood in Manila still haunt Jessica Hagedorn. They also inspire her
• Burma
The Outsider
When Wendy Law-Yone returned to Burma after 33 years, she discovered that exile was a deliverance from her homeland's living hell
• Japan
Tokyo Popped
On a visit to his ailing grandmother, Karl Taro Greenfeld realizes that he has changed more than his homeland has
• Vietnam
Into Thin Air
Monique Truong is caught between her country of birth and her country of refuge—neither of which she can yet call home
• China
Changing Course
Peter Hessler journeys back to the Chinese river town of Fuling, the setting of his first book, and finds that his characters are writing a whole new story
• China
Racial Profiling
Does nature or nurture decide who you are? Gish Jen dissects the question of identity, and what it is to be—and not be—Chinese
• China
Unsafe Havens
His house on Beijing's Nanxiao Lane was once a refuge to him. Now Ma Jian knows that home is simply where he is, and something he carries inside himself
• Taiwan
A Vanished Place
Photographer Chien-Chi Chang returns to his family village for the first time in 30 years to find the hamlet of his childhood memories wiped out by progress
• Korea
We Are Family
During a visit to his native South Korea, Chang-rae Lee learns that living abroad and losing his language are no barriers to belonging
• Pakistan
The Pathos of Exile
In Lahore for a wedding, Mohsin Hamid is seduced by the city's bright lights and wonders why he ever left
• India
Basic Instinct
Pankaj Mishra finds peace in a simple and remote Himalayan hamlet that succeeds in ignoring the rest of the world
• Sri Lanka
Coming Out
Shyam Selvadurai set up house with his boyfriend in his native Sri Lanka—a land where homosexuality is officially outlawed
• Pakistan
A House Divided
Ved Mehta returns to his family home, lost during the violent partitioning of India and Pakistan, and discovers that the past is history
• Afghanistan
Home Free
Hamid Karzai dreamed for years of his eventual homecoming. But for both him and his newly reborn nation, the journey has only begun
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