Just Like Being There

In the vast, frigid expanse of space, can an engineer truly be a poet? Hong Kong-Canadian author Eric Choi’s short story collection, Just Like Being There, is the most elegant proof answering "yes" to this question. This book is not a fantasy rife with flashy magic. Instead, it is the essence of "Hard SF"—solid yet lyrical—combining actual aerospace engineering knowledge with the deep contemplation of an immigrant.

Author Eric Choi’s background imbues these stories with an overwhelming sense of realism. A veteran engineer based in Toronto, he has worked on Mars probes and meteorological satellite projects. By day, he calculates rocket trajectories; by night, he writes of human anguish set against that cosmic backdrop. Consequently, the technical descriptions in his stories are not wild flights of fancy, but precise, like detailed blueprints. He is also a pioneer in expanding the standing of Asian SF authors, a writer who flies on the twin wings of science and diversity.

The title story, "Just Like Being There," explores the life of an artist who, after suffering a stroke, communicates with the world through a telepresence robot. The title is double-edged. It is a tribute to overcoming physical limitations through technology, but simultaneously implies the sorrowful limitation that one's real body is not truly present. This leads to a philosophical inquiry into the "true conditions of being human" in a highly developed technological society.

Although this collection belongs to Anglophone literature, it is deeply underpinned by questions of identity unique to the diaspora. Physically, one may have adapted perfectly to life in Canada, yet emotionally, there remains an unfulfilled longing for the homeland. The author likens this drifting heart of the immigrant to the "gap between virtual reality and reality."

The following passage transcends technical description to reveal profound insight into loss and identity:
"We capture the light, the data, the geometry of a moment... We are always approximating home."

Could an engineering term like "approximating" ever be used so sorrowfully? The author confesses that no matter how perfect the technology, or how successful the life in a foreign land, we can never 100% recreate the primal "home" and "self" we left behind. This resonates with the sentiment of Han (deep sorrow and resilience) that every Korean immigrant holds in a corner of their heart.

While Eric Choi’s Just Like Being There deals with a cold, metallic future, its temperature is warm. This is because his gaze rests not on the technology itself, but on the hearts of the people living with it. The characters in his stories, faithfully doing their part in the unfamiliar space of the universe, resemble us immigrants who have silently put down roots in a strange land. Beyond scientific intellectual play, this book is a warm consolation from an engineer to all those standing on the border.