Sample commentary on Shanghai Childhood: be sure you have a written copy of it

The writer's purpose is to look back on childhood in a nostalgic, sometimes rather comical way. It is incongruous to describe a 'mound` as having a 'summit'. This shows that to small children a slight incline in a garden seems like a mountain. The writer concedes that his memory is exaggerated in the phrases 'even at the time' and 'hardly matched': he acknowledges the 'splendour' of the houses round the corner, which are described as 'residences' rather than merely houses.

A comical picture of little boys is created. Their game is only running about in a garden and yet they are 'worn ... out' and are 'panting', in need of a rest. The gap between childhood and adulthood for the writer is shown in the words 'around six years old'; he does not have an exact memory because it was a long time ago. Nostalgia is created in his closing his eyes 'to bring back that picture', consciously trying to evoke the past. His parents' nostalgia for the England they have left behind is shown in their weak attempt to re-create an 'English' lawn; the inverted commas show their attempt is not entirely successful in the climate of Shanghai.