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This chapter serves as an Introduction to the book. It discusses the book’s origins and the connections between the authors and their respective organizations – the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute and Civic Exchange. It describes how Los Angeles and Hong Kong and several Chinese cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou have emerged as global cities, the urban development strategies they have pursued, and the urban environmental challenges they face. It answers the question, why a book about Los Angeles and Hong Kong and their connection to China and identifies for all three places the six urban environmental areas that will be analyzed – ports and goods movement, air quality, water supply and water quality, the food environment, transportation, and open and public space.

Since space and time are the two fundamental modes of locating experience, the first chapter of the book considers their interaction. Specifically, the ways in which descriptions of space further the sense of the passing of time are explored. Space has been traditionally thought of as the opposite of time, and critics have suggested that spatial description in narrative actually stills time. In this chapter, it is suggested that the opposite is true; that, in fact, describing objects and settings contributes to the multilayered, multidirectional, complex view of temporality that narrative affords. The chapter includes analyses of Mann’s Tonio Kröger, Death in Venice, and The Magic Mountain, in comparison with Kafka’s short story Home-Coming.

Dealing with environmental stressors is a basic part of life for any organism. Positive psychology focuses largely on the topic of resilience and how people can move past difficult situations and interactions. The evolutionary perspective has much to offer in terms of the topic of resilience. This chapter describes resilience and stress reactions from an evolutionary perspective. Further, this chapter uses the concept of natural selection as a model for how failures are to be expected and how success in any domain for any organism owes largely to a long string of failures. This model is used to help provide evolution-based guidance on the topic of moving forward after setbacks and developing a resilient approach to life.

The ancient Egyptians were the first to use a wedding ring as a symbol of love and fidelity. Bands were usually made from grass or hemp and worn on the fourth finger of the left hand, which was believed to include the vein that led directly to the heart. The circular shape of the ring—with no beginning and no end—represented eternal love. Over the centuries, societies throughout the world adapted the tradition to fit their own cultures. It was once customary in the United States for only the bride to wear a ring, but this changed during and after the marriage boom that followed World War II. The number of men wearing wedding bands more than quadrupled, and today, double-ring marriage ceremonies are the norm. None of the men in the group had anticipated that “until death do you part” would occur so early in his marriage. After their wives died, what their wedding rings symbolized, and what should be done with them, was far from clear. One evening as the group settled in, Joe reached toward the center of the table to pick out his sub and bag of chips when one of us (Don) noticed something different about his left hand. “Joe, you took off your ring.” All eyes turned to Joe’s left hand. A strip of pale white skin that had been shielded from the sun for nearly twenty years circled the base of his fourth finger. Before that moment, the men had never discussed the subject of wedding rings. The prospect of dating again had compelled Joe to make the change. “It’s not that I’m interested in anyone in particular. In fact, even thinking about going out with someone right now is kind of overwhelming. But, damn, I don’t want to be lonely for the rest of my life. I hope that someday I’ll feel for someone else the way I felt for Joy.” Joe took off his ring because he wanted to believe that one day that time would come.