members of the Kurt Vonnegut fan club of Guizhou University begin to engage with the world

Over here:

“Young people in China are searching for new ways to think,” she told me as we walked toward the main gate of the campus. “But we are always careful. I think I love Kurt Vonnegut because he lets me laugh while also thinking in ways that are not popular in China.”

Isabel continued: “No one laughed at Chairman Mao, and no one laughs at [current leader] Hu Jintao. But Americans laugh at George Bush every day. I think this is the source of your power, and I wish China could learn to do the same.”

The last couple of paragraphs are especially worth reading, too.

Comments

[godoggo]

A long time ago I used Breakfast of Champions as a texbook for tutoring kid who'd recently moved from Taiwan to Hacienda Heights. He started applauding when we got to the part about how Columbus didn't actually "discover" America. I'd say that that kind of irreverence is actually pretty standard among Taiwanese people, but of course he was studying in an American high school at the time. After a few chapters he said, "That's OK, I can teach myself."