As I write, I look out at the garishly neon-lit skyscrapers of downtown Shanghai, which make the business districts of all but the largest American cities seem low-rise and sober by comparison.

" She suggests that the extensive gift shop and nostalgia-channelling Soviet-style cafe - featuring "Russian-style sprats" and a minimal "Nostalgija" borsch - make it a "Stalinist amusement park".

She suggests that the extensive gift shop and nostalgia-channelling Soviet-style cafe - featuring "Russian-style sprats" and a minimal "Nostalgija" borsch - make it a "Stalinist amusement park".

By the time I arrived home from school in the afternoon, the house smelled of Arabic bread and loaves and loaves of the round puffy disks leaned against each other in rows on the table.

That week, I stared out the classroom window at the modern office towers built atop razed lanes that rim our shrinking island.