Molten roofing north, lead dripping down south, stand like those immobilized columns of arctic water west, stalagmites, monked and housed or stamped and dudleyed east, in school texts.

But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye.

“When an artist becomes pop, it’s because the people choose it,” she says, now speaking at a canter.

The streets of Shanghai rattled with revolutionary tremors as Chiang's armies came closer and closer. They entered Chekiang, his home province, and on February 17, 1927, took Hangchow and advanced to Kashing and Sungkiang. They were less than twenty-five miles from Shanghai.