Word: schelle
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...WATCH OUT FOR THE FOREIGN GUESTS!" CHINA ENCOUNTERS THE WEST by Orville Schell; Pantheon; 178 pages...
Such is Orville Schell's rediscovery of Peking man, a post-Cultural Revolution pastiche of shifting policies and that old foreign devil, instant gratification. The author has been observing China ever since he was graduated from the Harvard-Yenching Institute in the late '50s. He made his first trip to the mainland in 1975 and knew pretty much what to expect. The rift in Sino-Soviet relations and memories of America's recent war in Southeast Asia had deepened China's traditional sense of isolation and natural mistrust of outsiders. Although he gorged on statistics...
From 1978 on, with Mao dead and the Gang of Four arrested, Schell returned repeatedly to find many of those streets transformed. There were more spontaneous introductions, ogling of Western clothing and transactions for profit. At the Peace Café, Benefit-the-People Wang had quick eyes for American cigarettes, Inca-bloc watches and hard currencies. He and his friends drank orange soda mixed with beer and discussed which foreign visitor might like to get it on with Golden Thunder Chen...
...Schell speaks Chinese and can end-run an official travel brochure; yet, he never seems certain if Benefit-the-People was a pimp or just a young punk playing at the second oldest profession. What impresses him is the new willingness of many Chinese to assert their opinions and desires. Says one young woman who dreams of becoming a fashion designer: "Of course I want what is best for myself during my life. I think that is only human nature." Schell finds such sentiments to be radical departures from the orthodoxy of the founding father. It is as if people...
...TIME OF ILLUSION, Jonathan Schell '65 describes the system Nixon used for assigning speeches to his staff of writers. There was a "Good Nixon" speechwriter who was known for flowery prose and concilliatory pronouncements calculated to please the left; and a "Bad Nixon" speechwriter who would formulate hard-hitting, no-holds-barred vitrioles for the good ol' boys on the right. Although produced with the "editorial assistance" of "Good Nixon" writer Ray Price, The Real War shows Nixon restrained only by his still-fervent desire for acceptance and respectability, fangs barely capped. Ultimately, the book most closely resembles...