Shin-tsu is back. Despite Midori's concern, he returned, just as he said he would at the beginning of September.

I greeted him with much fuss, which he accepted with an amused grin. Apart from the suntan, I detected an air of added confidence and a certain determination in his eyes. ‘You have grown!’ I teasingly exclaimed.

‘Midori Mama very grateful you and your sister visit her after attack on house,’ he said. ‘I sorry I not home. Did Midori Mama talk about me?’ He cast me a concerned look.

I shook my head and he seemed relieved.

‘Midori Mama has sharp sense and she worry I no like Baba's business,’ Shin-tsu said, with his old unaffected openness, which relieved me.

‘She take me to Uchiyama Bookshop when I a boy. Uncle and Lu Hsun put on art exhibits – woodblock prints. Place always full of energy, people looking, talking. Prints very interesting for little boy – coolies pulling rickshaw, men loading boats, scene I see every day in Shanghai.’ Watching him talk, I could almost see his wide-eyed younger self fascinated by the prints.

‘Prints show strong, working people, different from men around Baba. Uncle later tell me Lu Hsun interest in woodblock print is very brave and new.’

‘Eiko-san, I now know what Uncle mean by brave,’ he continued, giving me a serious look. ‘Lu Hsun sympathy for worker make him target of Nationalist suspicion. Chiang Kai-shek men round up many people those days, and Uncle Uchiyama always keep eye on street and let Lu Hsun know if see any strange person. Now, I never like Chiang Kai-shek, who always on side of big money and power.’

I suddenly thought I was starting to understand and asked, ‘Is that why you are critical of your father? Because he favours Chiang Kai-shek?’

Shin-tsu waved his hands in front of me and vigorously shook his head. ‘No, no, Eiko-san. Baba not on Chiang Kai-shek side, but on Wang Ching-wei side.’

Of course, I should have known, for Mr Mao worked closely with the Japanese.