This is such a wonderful collection of short stories. The only shame is that I hadn't read Liu before, despite his plethora of awards on these stories alone. 
 Normally when I read a short story collection, I make notes which ones were my favorites. I'll admit I was jotting down nearly all of them. So in a desperate attempt to not have this review be ten pages long, I'm going to cut down my list of favorites again. 
 The Perfect Match. The convenience of technology, and the dangers of putting yourself out there on the 'net. An AI-type of system knows all your moves and all your preferences, for the luxury that you yourself don't have to think about them. Admittedly, the end was a little predictable. But I can't resist a good "technology takes over the world" tale. 
 Good Hunting. It's a desperate attempt to hold onto old traditions, while simultaneously creating new ones--in the form of an unlikely friendship between a demon and a demon hunter. What happens when no one believes in the old spirits anymore? What happens when the demon hunter's services are no longer needed, and the son is unable to carry on the traditions of the father? It's modernization at its best (complete with the evils of the railroads), and recreating identity. Maybe literally. 
 Simulacrum. It's more than a mere photograph--it's a lifelike rendition of a hologram, one you can play over and over again and have them converse with you. Handy if you want to cheat on your wife without actually cheating, or talk to the daughter who disowned you. It's the format that wins this one. I've read similar stories in the past, but this is set up like an interview, so little by little you hear the entire tale by the characters who lived it. That, in itself, is another means of living in the past... 
 Paper Menagerie. There's a good reason this one stole the collection's title. A mother that was a mail-order bride, trying desperately to teach her culture to a child who wants nothing of it. It's always too late when we decide to honor our parents, when we've grown and it doesn't matter as much anymore. Throw in a little magic, and this story is really something special. 
 The Waves. A group sent to colonize another planet are faced with a scientific choice--they can follow the standard concept of life and die, or they can become immortal. Some choose death. Some choose life. It's on growing old, or not; it's about watching your children mature, or not. In the end, we're still not certain which was the better choice. 
 Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel. Hands-down my favorite of the bunch. Midpoint City is a waypoint on the train, which spans from Asia to North America. Charlie helped to dig the tunnel but remained after its completion, content to live in this underground city, creating a new life nowhere. But like any seemingly grand plans, the tunnels have their secrets. The plot is interspersed with the story of the tunnel, as if out of history books, and the more we learn the more Charlie learns, too--the parts that won't be recorded in books.