Post #6

As Peter Hessler talks about how the Chinese are as whole, it fascinates me. He describes the Chinese as being initially confusing and so different, but as he goes on to live in their culture, he finds that the Chinese are rather predictable. If you ask one person in America about their views on a certain political concept and then ask another, their ideas and feelings on that subject are going to most likely vary between the two. This country encourages controversy and giving people the right to speak up about what they think. China, on the other hand- at least how Hessler describes it- is so standardized that people all respond to the same question about rather controversial topics, in the same way. When Peter tells the story about the Chinese people assuming Jews are wise, it makes me feel sad for the their culture because they have such a naïve view of other cultures and traditions around the world.

Because of their lack of education on these worldly subjects, this further explains why the Chinese are so easily influenced by their government system. Much earlier in the novel, Hessler touches on this control the government has on China by saying, “Perhaps by my standards they were politically brainwashed, but compared to the past they were remarkably free” (pg 23). So, even though Chinese culture still comes off a bit brainwashed and politically ruled, their culture has significantly changed since the horrible times of foot binding and lack of education.