I had a very mixed kind of childhood reading. I read the childhood classics like 'Robinson Crusoe,' 'Alice in Wonderland,' 'Chums Annual.' At the same time, I read an enormous number of American comics because Shanghai was an American zone of influence.

I only realised why I keep living in Shepperton when I returned to China. All the people who moved there had come from places just like Shepperton, and so they built and lived in houses exactly like these. I now know I was drawn here because, on an unconscious level, Shepperton reminds me of Shanghai.

My kitchen looks like the one from my childhood - very homey, with a little bit of Alice in Wonderland!

To my child's eyes, which had seen nothing else, Shanghai was a waking dream where everything I could imagine had already been taken to its extreme.

I really didn't remember much about 'Alice in Wonderland' since I had not read it since I was a kid. But it certainly has the makings for a wonderful fantasy party.

...Is Wonderland really a wonder...when you have nowhere to land?