In my early childhood, I inherited from my grandparents a photo-album of Beijing in the late nineteenth century. This album was my first exposure to Chinese culture. Those large sepia photos on thick glossy paper with their bewitching images of people and scenes beyond the realm of my daily experience and imagination, sparked an eager curiosity that years later led me to spend two and a half years exploring Chinese language and culture as an exchange student at Beijing University, and to retu...