Eckert contemplates the significance of beginning his third decade on Earth in Beijing.

Angela Tung sees on the sidewalk many lost things.

Ms. Conley’s voice is quiet and warming and her friendship is inviting. But friendship has its costs.

David S. Wills considers his own mortality beneath China’s smog blanket.

Angela Tung remembers the suckiness that is Christmas in China, where foreigners sometimes go off the deep end, meat loaf and mashed potatoes are a delicacy, and a Chinese American is as mythic as Santa Claus himself.