– How old is he?

– Kon Long (dinosaur), replies X.

That is usually enough. They are asking out of friendly curiosity.

I have a slight tremor of the left hand, which makes me seem more decrepit. I could conceal it by putting the arm in a sling as if it is some sporting injury. (Guardi le stelle, che tremano d’amore.) T tells me not to hunch my shoulder and to keep my head back and not to adopt a sarcastic expression.

– Englishmen’s lips are not shaped in a way to catch bits of noodle falling onto their chin. They are only well shaped to make sarcastic remarks.

The restaurant is set in the middle of a field planted with medicinal trees and shrubs. Other diners are in groups, in T-shirts, with children. We look round the garden, and go into the canteen where the herbs are displayed and labelled and we can choose which we like for our meal. Then we choose the beans, chicken and freshly picked lemon grass, then go to our trestle table, where each place has a hot pot (huo-guo) set into the table, and a kind of individual dashboard under the table, allowing each adult and even child to adjust the time and temperature to cook his dish.

X is happy because he has been caring for at least fourteen abandoned cats from a disused railway station at Shang-Li. He is a retired engineer. He has been travelling twenty miles every week to feed ...