Patriotic about being Chinese, he still dreams of serving in the House of Commons and remaking a tiny island that he knows will never recover a tenth of its former glory.

Averse to permanence in his own life, he is nonetheless a Burkean, a challenger of all self-righteous political correctness, and a flag bearer for modern reactionism as he wears a pith helmut galloping from station to hill station. Never at home in one place, he was born in that imperial center faded, stateliest Vienna, he grew up in the courtyards of dynasties past and hyperpower future, Beijing and came of age in that first world city that presided over the pinnacle of Western dominance, London. Global cognoscenti, he is the new elite: trained at Oxford, teeth cut in the world’s most prestigious investment bank, and attendee at the most glamorous balls of Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, courted by the oriental beauties the world now covets. www.stylites.net