Construction of the three-story school building equipped with a cafeteria and dormitories were completed in March 2007. Julian invited his family to the inaugural ceremony and named it Dawo You’ai Xiaoxue, or the Dawo Friendship Primary School. “It is not necessary to be grateful to me,” he told the students, “the facilities I have provided aren’t worth that. You should use them to gain knowledge, discover the world, find your ideals and goals in life, and become useful members of society. You will then bring the facilities into full play.”

In May 2008 Julian had just returned from a visit to China when he heard about the disastrous Wenchuan Earthquake. “I feel more than ever like a Sichuan citizen, wishing that I were in China,” he said. He saw on the TV screen places familiar to him, and where he had given lectures, undergoing catastrophe, and couldn’t help but be deeply affected. He found that during those days he could only do two things – stare at the TV as the situation was updated, and wander around in the room like a “search and rescue dog.”

He was eager to return, but first had to have emergency surgery for nasal cancer. It wasn’t until two months later that he could eventually set foot in Sichuan. “What about the school?” was the first question he asked his friends when he arrived.

The ruined buildings that he was confronted with reminded Julian of his vagrant childhood during the Second World War, moving from place to place with his mother and other war refugees. Still traumatized by wartime life, he was familiar with what the children around him were now going through. His own experiences had cemented the belief that a new life for them had to start with post-earthquake psychological rehabilitation.

In the following days, Julian and his team traveled the earthquake epicenter along the Longmen Mountain fault zone, stopping in the most stricken places. They brought books and stationery for children and played games with them. Julian wanted them to feel safe and confident about the future.

Whether in China or far away in the U.S., the children were never far from Julian’s thoughts. The first thing he did on his return home was log on to the Internet and call his Chinese friends.

Julian, confronted frequently by his own mortality, is startlingly frank about his advancing years and failing health. He is aware that his ability to continue his work is gradually diminising and that eventually his friends and colleagues will have to take over his commitments and dreams.

But despite ups and downs in his health in recent years, Julian continues to make trips to China whenever possible. It is clear throughout the book that, though he came to the country at a relatively late stage of his life, it has become a part of him. “On the day that must come,” he writes, “someone will sprinkle my ashes in the places that we have been.”