In 1997, Ding Xiao'e, the daughter of a teacher at a university in the western suburbs of Beijing, committed suicide by jumping off a building. This life that ends with a single throw has no value other than causing intense grief or surprise to parents, relatives and friends.
There was only one thing as puzzling as her death. The day after Ding Xiao'e ended her life, her parents received a letter from Shanghai. The letter was written by an older woman whom they did not know, and included a yellowed photo. The letter said, don't you want to see me when I was young? The young girl in the photo is wearing a cheongsam from the 1930s, with long curly hair, and her youthful beauty and grace can be vaguely discerned from her unclear eyebrows. On the back of the photo, there is a line of blurred words: Du Ting, in Shanghai in 1937.
