HONG KONG — Throughout the weekend, thousands of Chinese gave an outpouring of condolences online, sharing images of lit candles and heartfelt expressions of sympathy for the 20 children and seven adults who were killed in Newtown. “Today is a sad day for the entire world,” wrote Weibo-user, who linked the Connecticut attack to China’s own tragedy of Dec. 14, a rampage at an elementary school in central Henan province that left 23 young children bleeding and wounded.

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — Their names and faces are now achingly familiar to tens of millions of Americans: Emilie Parker, just 6 years old, a little blond elf; Ana Marquez-Greene, also 6, playing on the piano; Victoria Soto, so proud to be a teacher, who tried to shield her first-graders with her body and died for it.