When I was a boy in China

The narrator recounts childhood memories and cultural customs from infancy through adolescence, describing family life, household routines, cookery, games, schooling, gender roles, religious practices, holidays, and story-telling traditions. Practical details about domestic objects, medical beliefs, charms, and superstitions appear alongside scenes of festivals and everyday food. He also relates leaving provincial life for Shanghai, preparing to emigrate, and his early impressions after arriving in America. The account mixes personal anecdote with observational detail to introduce foreign readers to ordinary social habits and rites of upbringing.