Shanghai’s summer heat had descended fully upon the city. Tang laoshi’s 8th grade class had just finished doing their morning exercises and collapsed en masse from exhaustion.

They claimed it was heat exhaustion but Tang had a sneaking suspicion that the children had been up all night playing games on their iPhones.

Kids these days, she sighed. When she was their age, she was farming millet from dawn until dusk. The only angry birds she knew were the ones who attacked you in the fields to steal your seeds.