In Taipei a pedicab driver, living on a dollar a day, waves a cheerful greeting. When he knows you better, he will roll up his sleeve and show the scars won by 28 years in the army—with never a victory in sight. Roast Peking duck, as succulent as ever, is brought to the table by a shouting waiter. Round the corner in the police station a twelve-year-old boy is beaten with bamboo rods for pilfering. Nearby lives one of the most famous Chinese scholars of the century. He would like to go on studying the ancient documents, but at eighty-eight he finds riding the rickety bus to the Academia Sinica a little too much. He totters in with tea and talks awhile with his guests. In his quiet moments he likes to write out classical poetry hi ancient calligraphy.