"On my world, in times of extreme starvation, the son may give his flesh to the father, and it is considered desperate but filial--the highest form of gratitude to one's parents," says Xie Lian. "That's not the situation in Ghost City, of course. But there I think it is lost among many other sins." He smiles a little, nostalgic. "There is a house where one gambles with things dear to one--a year of one's life, a limb, a child--for what one most desires."