In a year fraught with sensitive Chinese anniversaries, June 4th is by far the most resonant in the United States. I was eight years old when Hu Yaobang, a former Communist Party secretary and advocate of political reform that had fallen from grace a year earlier, died. Students gathered in...

After a year and a half in Shanghai, I have become extremely fond of taxis. Nothing is so comforting as the sight of a fleet of cabs--you can find them in red, yellow, blue and green--sitting along the street with "vacant" lights shining through their windshield. My affinity extends to...