so i did my first of the incredible women interviews last night, hopefully i'll be able to get four more by tomorrow (yipes!). anyway, i was excited to talk to this woman because she works at a popular chinese women's magazine. when i was interviewing her, i asked her what she thought about the fact that so recently, Chinese women weren't really allowed to be fashionable and had to wear the mao coats the same as men. i was hoping she would have a lot to say about china's development, and how it was nice that woman were able to express themselves and be creative. but i've kind of noticed that young chinese people don't really think about the changes in china since 1978, or at least don't talk about it. i mean, i know its been more than 20 years since china opened up, but if i were someone in the arts i would like to talk about the advances that have been made in my industry, and seeing myself as a part of that. but for the chinese people i've tried to discuss such issues with, they don't really seem to connect themselves with that time. it seems like they really kind of focus on the present time, and don't talk about developments from the past. for instance, a month ago, i was talking to my friend dandan about a test she had to take. she showed me a picture of a grandpa and his grandchild, and both were starting school, and said they were supposed to write an essay about it. i forget what the actual point of the picture was, but i started talking about how its so sad, because the grandfather probably grew up during the cultural revolution and couldn't have an education and watched his teachers beaten and stuff. and dandan seemed kind of bemused, and said she would never think of that. so i'm probably grossly generalizing, but my guess is that maybe china is doing a bit of willful forgetting, kind of embarassed about the backwardness of its recent history.
also a funny tidbit- dandan mentioned to this woman that i knew anne hathaway, the girl from devil wears prada, when i was little. (she went to my preschool, i don't remember her at all, but my mom says i went to her birthday parties and stuff.) the girl looked at me and said, "yeah, you kind of look like her. I think its the eyes." i look absolutely nothing like anne hathaway, so i'm pretty sure that was just a bit of reverse racism. nice!