Watching TV with the Red Chinese

Television is America. At least it is the America seen by visiting graduate students Tzu, Chen, and Wa. But what an America! ("What is difference between Tide, Cheer, and Biz?" "Please to explain flea-flicker?"). Author Luke Whisnant leaves it to their neighbor, Dexter Mitchell, to serve as consultant to the Red Chinese and to tell the story of their "adjustment" to America. Dex calls them (only half-jokingly) "the brilliant Red Chinese." They are brilliant: among the very first to come out, they have been hand-selected to withstand the temptations of the capitalist world. These Red Chinese arrive at a turning point in contemporary U.S. history - the moment between Reagan's election and John Lennon's murder. Poised before their pawn shop television set, they watch the last days of American innocence play out. And when invited to, they speak for themselves:. TZU: What really interested me was ... the concept of the system of television. CHEN: When I am watching football, I think about how everyone else in America is also watching ... And I think what this is like, to have the whole country watching, to have everyone together, a system, a series, parts that relate to be a whole thing ... This is America. WA: We have television in China. But ... not so many people have TV set in their house. More in public places, to watch as group. So nobody watches like here in America, six, seven, eight hours a day. The Red Chinese watch American TV. We watch them watching. And in so doing we see ourselves.