"But where are the memorials to the war dead? Where is the museum about World War II?" I continued to press, perplexed that the Chinese seemed to have no interest in preserving the memory of what is known, even in America, as one of the bloodiest and most horrifying episodes of World War II.

"Do Your Job"

Finally Yuan, the guide, got frustrated with my lack of sophistication about the ways of the Chinese. "We've had other things to worry about," she said. "And besides, everything has changed since the Cultural Revolution."

Yuan has a husband who is studying for his master's at Princeton. She has a two-and-a-half year old son and must pay for a babysitter because she has no family members to look after the child-the custom in China. She cannot afford to come visit her husband in the United States, and does not have a phone with which to call him.

But Yuan, though she is open about the problems she faces, is reluctant to emphasize her hardships; like many of the people I met in China, she is absorbed in attaining the badges of economic success which attest to China's rising standard of living.

Yuan adeptly sidestepped a question about whether she was happy with her job and her family situation. "The Chinese have a saying 'Do your job, then love your job,'" she said.