“River is My Hometown” is driven by a strong sense of loss. When River faces the loss of his hometown following the disaster of the 1998 Yangtze River flood and the question of his identity, he tries to build his own language space to re-translate his subjective emotions. The traditional mourning ceremony of his hometown “plead for water" becomes a key clue — an entrance into the self-language space. It substantiates his sad thoughts, and returns him as a revenant to a hometown that transcends the geographic concept.