Holly’s school art project—an old bathtub that had been painted with daisies and avant-garde designs—squatted in the comer, its nailpolished lion’s feet gripping the cement floor in defiance.

In Beijing’s Dongcheng District where 560,000 residents live, some 936 neighborhood stores, restaurants, health clinics, nurseries, and cultural and educational centers have been established.

Marty shook his head as he chucked a U-ey, the headlights picking out the dazed animal in the middle of the road.

his stockings fouled, / Ungartered and down-gyved to his ankle,