Silent thrush is used in this work to describe metaphorically both the decline of Taiwan’s once flourishing Taiwanese opera from the 1980s onward and the women responsible for keeping opera troupes up and running. These women, facing the demands of the stage and uncouth audiences, are by necessity masters of compromise and a stalwart presence in the opera scene.
Despite contemporary taboos regarding homosexuality, women in this traveling opera troupe give one another the love and support needed to endure their nomadic existence. As members of an all-female clique, these women, proudly self-sufficient, handle life on their own terms, with drama and emotions on stage regularly bleeding into life off stage. Different from the upper-crust, urban settings of most gay literature, this novel stands out for its rural setting and focus on homosexuality in a traditionally marginalized working-class community.