When he sat on old Jim's knee, however, he leaned in confidence against him, and sighed with a sweet little sound of contentment, as poignant to reinspire a certain ecstasy of sadness in the miner's breast as it was to excite an envy in the hearts of the others.

The KMT’s act of self-humiliation is reminiscent of what happened in 1948, when it was being buffeted by the storm of the Chinese Civil War. In January of that year, a group of KMT members established the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (中國國民黨革命委員會), which supported the CCP’s call, as one of its “May Day slogans,” to establish a democratic coalition government.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out, of all things, an ice cream cone.

Our parents marched to church and we trailed behind.