北京十年记录下作者羁留北京时写的人物及事件故事。所记录的内容正如作者自己所言：旧闻新抄，不妨当野史来读，野史可以做正史的补充，也可能比正史更加真实，另有一翻味。本书的故事集中表现了一个极其创造力的时代的特征。("A Decade in Beijing" records characters and stories happening when the author was in Beijing. The recorded content is just as the author himself puts it: Old news rewritten might be read as unofficial history, which is a supplement of official history, and make the official history more real and more interesting. The book's story focuses on the characteristics of a creative era.)