In a mining outpost so remote it is beyond the reach of radio signals, swept by dust storms and bitterly cold, a colourfully dressed girl serves noodles to an unknown young man. Pressed by her father, the young man says he is just passing through: not something they see often. Nor do they see new-fangled things like his Walkman – a machine for playing music, as he tells the girl – on which he is listening to a tape called Songs of Taiwan. For the girl, just the sound of commercial pop music opens up a new world.