The main theme displayed in Spence’s The Question of Hu and Clissold’s Mr. China: A Memoir revolves around cultural warfare between foreigners and Chinese. This essay focuses on the difference and similarity of cultural encounters between the two contexts. In the beginning of his book, Spence introduces a Frenchman named Jesuit Foucquet. He is determined to illustrate that the Christian God conveyed Chinese religious scripts to the Chinese.
For this assignment to be achieved, he requires a Chinese person to help interpret some of the scripts and luckily finds a receptive Chinese Catholic man named John Hu. “He is dark, and with a hopeless look, but there exists no time to look for someone else, it was either this Chinese or No one completely (Spence, 1988, p. 34). Foucquet’s hurry to select Hu for the task proves to be a nightmare while in France. Neither does Hu attempt to learn French nor copy Chinese, as he was contracted to do. He shows no desire to adapt to the culture he sees.
Most of Hu’s actions were reckless and not approved of by the European Community. In one instance, he discovers a horse tethered to a post, takes it, and rides it across the region. Foucquet attempts to question him in Chinese, but Hu counters as he asks, “Why! If a horse isn’t being utilized, may somebody else not utilize it? (Spence, 1998, p. 70). Moreover, once Hu was in the asylum, a Charenton’s staff member issues him a warm sheet to insulate him from the night cold, but he shreds it. Hu’s actions were more of a threat to Foucquet; he obviously holds on to culture and values that differ from the European culture. Therefore, it is plausible to say that he was overwhelmed by the cultural differences he faced in a new territory.
As much as some of Hu’s dilemmas are related to cultural differences, most of his actions are those displaying rebellion. Hu is aware that Foucquet and other Europeans were attempting to control him, and he resisted their moves. Foucquet’s desire to control Hu is fueled by his need to use him to copy the Chinese documents, and thus, he sees Hu as his servant. Spence employs Foucquet to depict the upper denomination in the European community wanting to control Hu, who represents the lower denominations. Spence, furthermore, provokes questions about how and whether or not cultures should be blended.
Foucquet hopes that asserting his concept about Chinese religious scripts originally being bestowed to the Chinese by the exact God that Christians praise would help unravel Christianity to china, and in turn, help in integrating cultures. Foucquet’s unwillingness to handle the people he would love to convince and convert makes it difficult to blend the two cultures. His main objective is to utilize Hu to spoof his Chinese scripts, and he does not bother about Chinese culture to put into the integration of the two (Spence, 1998, p. 80).
Spence illustrates the problems likely to come up when attempting to integrate cultures. He furnishes examples of Hu discovering modern technology, like the windmills, which prompts him to behave carelessly. Every time he noticed something unfamiliar to him, he would walk out and stare at it.
Through portraying the negligence and obstinacy of the two cultures, Spence intends to assert that people from different cultures can live together peacefully as long as they are permitted to hold on to their distinctive virtues, and members of both cultures continue to respect the diversity of each other. Hence, The Question of Hu asks, “what does it imply to interpret another culture?” Hu discerns European culture from a Chinese view while Foucquet views Chinese culture from a Christian-based perspective. The major variation between the two sides is that Foucquet controls Hu’s culture and forcing him to adapt to European culture, while Hu does not attempt to transform Foucquet culture.
Tim Clissold’s Mr. China connects well with Jonathan Spence’s The Question of Hu. This is evident as Clissold narrates a tale of a young man who departs to China with the misinformed theory that he will assist in transforming the Chinese into the modern world, but the extensively intelligent operators he would ever come across discipline him. Mr. China is forced to learn to respect and appreciate the country’s culture intends to conquer (Clissold, 2006, p. 30).
Clissold’s first visit to China, he was informed that there was no rice in cafes and in other cases, the bar servants would simulate that they lacked stock. Unlikely Spence’s Foucquet, who is so unwilling to deal with people he would like to convert, Clissold grows persistence and rages into the kitchen looking for a meal and did a thorough search in lodgings to look for rooms. He then learns to acknowledge without feeling bitter that the culture was more of a tradition that nobody got over. It is crucial to understand that the Chinese culture acknowledges persistence from foreigners even in the easiest of undertakings, leave alone rendering trade transactions. (Clissold, 2006, p. 59).
This displays a difference from Spence’s Foucquet, who does not even attempt to learn about Hu’s culture but instead, he is more interested in using him to copy the Chinese scripts while forcing him to adapt to the European culture.
When Clissold resigns from his job to study Mandarin, he is faced with sufferings that foreign learners in Chinese universities face, for instance, exclusion by Chinese locals in the escape of spiritual decay. He later realizes that he is broke and urgently needs a job. Luckily, Arthur Andersen, his former employer, needs somebody to explore investment possibilities in China. Clissold gets this job and includes Pat and Ai Jian to help him carry out investment research in China.
They would later convince numerous Wall Street managers to invest funds in their preferred businesses. However, these investments face unforeseen hardships like money laundering, millions of cash loss, ineffective management, and the rise of new unregulated plants that competed with the joint investment (Clissold, 2006). Considering these misfortunes, it is clear that the Wall Street theory did not work in China. Hence, foreign investors are pushed to learn that it is crucial to research the cultural backgrounds in nations they want to invest in to avert obstacles related to presumptions of culture as portrayed in the book Mr. China.
Despite the misadventures, Clissold’s enthusiasm for china drives him to make a choice of living within the nation. His choice intends to tell us that we should respect, value, and understand other country’s cultures instead of attempting to conquer them (Clissold, 2006, p. 89). On the other hand, Spence communicates about varied cultural interpretations to imply that it is crucial to recognize the diverse aspects people perceive cultures and their intolerances towards them. He acknowledges that everyone will definitely have his or her own intolerances towards everything. Nevertheless, The Question of The Hu gives prominence to the significance of the understanding of these intolerances.
References
Clissold, T. (2006). Mr. China: A Memoir. Web.
Spence, J. (1998). The Question of Hu. Web.