Humorous and Insightful

The entire book of Iron and Silk is humorous and insightful. One example of when it is humorous is in the first chapter ("Leaving") where he has to preform a martial arts demonstration to prove that he was a legitimate martial arts student, and not someone trying to smuggle swords out of China.

"Somewhere in mid-air my pants split wide open, from the bast of the zipper to the belt line in back. A crowd of giggling old ladies rushed forward with needles and thread ready, followed by an equal number of old men with incurable illnesses who believed that I must have learned traditional medicine as part of my martial arts training..." (4).

 This sentence was inserted early on in the book to introduce humor into the book so that the reader would continue to read. To keep the reader engaged, there are many more examples of this humor in other places in the book and example of this is:

"'Binglang is like wine,' he said, 'it makes you feel a little drunk. We thought you were used to it, and that was why you chewed so many. Just one or two of them makes us feel dizzy!" The jolt of adrenaline I had just experienced must have quickened the effect of the drug, which is known as betel nut in the West, for my legs began to feel long and rubbery, a buzzing filled my ears, and the bus ride, which only lasted for fifteen minutes or so, seemed to go on for over an hour" (111).

This quote took place when Mark, one of his martial art's teachers, and some of his other students went to go visit his teacher's friend. Mark had no idea what he was eating, and so he ate many of the nut. It is also interesting to see that all of the Chinese who went with him thought that Mark would know about the nut already, but he has no idea, showing the cultural gap between the West and China. This is an insightful way to show the gap because it was also humorous. Another time when this book was both insightful and humorous was when Mark and some of his students spoke about retirement in China:

"Many doctors in China are not allowed to retire, and some of them have never even had a vacation. This woman announced that she had a retirement plan: she would pretend to die, have herself nailed in a coffin and driven to her home village, then climb out during the funeral and declare herself a ghost. 'Then I could have a garden and take care of my grandchildren'" (145).

This book has some very interesting insights into the Chinese world., technically China is very strict, but there are also many time where they sound just like us, and our dreams. This book was able to change what I thought about China, and when I read it, I thought that it was funny but also very interesting.

My favorite part of this book was when Mark went to the house of the poor peasant fishermen and slept there. It really was interesting to see what the people who had never seen a Caucasian thought of velvet, and what they thought of Western music. I enjoyed Mark's confusion when the talked over him playing the cello and when Mark showed them the photos of his family, and they said that the woman dressed too colorfully. My favorite of this scene was when the author described the grandmother of the family: 

"The grandmother had brilliant white hair, carefully combed and tied back, and sparkling eyes that looked at me without blinking. She wore thick cotton trousers and a padded cotton jacket, all black, and though worn threadbare, her clothes were spotless. She sat only a few inches away from me, absorbed in pure wonder. She had a great dignity nonetheless, occasionally turning her head as if to show me her profile in the candlelight" (121).