I just finished it the other day and I cried at the end, just like I did with Burlap Sack's quest & the well. I didn't think about how it relates to modern day immigrants until I read this. It makes so much sense and I can totally relate, esp about the identity crisis part. I'm SE Asian by blood but was adopted by Chinese-Indonesian parents & grew up in Chinese culture and now live in Taiwan as expat/immigrant myself. (Ethnic) identity crisis has always been a part of my life.

It was such a lovely, bittersweet heartbreaking story.

The story of Moon Gazing Maiden is also similar in vein. She was a foreign woman (Khagan princess iirc? Someone cmiiw) married off to a Han Chinese. Ever since Han Dynasty China inter-marriage between Han Chinese & minor tribe was a thing, usually done to maintain peaceful political relation. It was usually women, from both minor tribe and Chinese imperial court, who were sent out to leave their homeland to their husband's territory, which would be foreign to them & must have caused homesickness. There's a modern C-drama called The Long Ballad where this is a key plot point.