Unlike Farewell China, which depicts a tragedy in a foreign land, Floating Life explores the problem of the generation gap between the first and second generation of Chinese emigrants and the clash between Chinese and Western culture.
不同於《愛在他鄉的季節》經營的是一份異鄉悲調，《浮生》深入兩代華人西化程度差異的問題，將主題擴展到中國傳統文化與西洋文化的衝擊。