The WASTE TIDE story unfolds within the dangerous ecosystem of an “e-waste processing” island where corporate elites and interests, powerful local clans, and the workers who toil there come into conflict when a young worker, Mimi, is transformed through an industrial accident and attains the power to liberate her community.

By exploring concepts such as human-machine integration and the sinister lull of e-narcotics in the context of the global extractive economy, the novel explores questions of humanity and ethics in a world shaped by tech monopolies and entrenched social hierarchies. The work combines cyberpunk elements with the ancient cultural traditions and beliefs of Southern China, a realm of misty mountains and ghost-filled tides. Against the backdrop of industrial pollution and rapid technological development, it shows us a way that humanity, by bonding together with compassion and hope, can free ourselves from alienation and work to heal our wounded world.