Chapter Four

法租界时期，上海棚户区样貌。此处shack即“滚地龙”。也许有一点夸大成分。
I remember quizzing Akira repeatedly about these exploits. The truth concerning the Chinese districts, he told me, was far worse than the rumours. There were no proper buildings, just shack upon shack built in great proximity to one another. It all looked, he claimed, much like the market place in Boone Road, except that whole families were to be found living in each 'stall'. There were, moreover, dead bodies piled up everywhere, flies buzzing all over them, and no one  there thought anything of it.