It's human to hear stories and to know how people live and to imagine how that is for them. It's very interdependent!
Gish JenFor students who are in the most creative group in America to somehow be presumed to be narrow is just completely meshugga.
Gish JenChinese language tends to be quick, economical. To know what people are saying, you always need to know what the context is.
Gish JenIt's a matter of whether you see the self as fundamentally in relationship to other selves or not - whether you see the boundary between self and the world as relatively permeable, which makes you "interdependent" (collectivist) in outlook, or relatively impermeable, which makes you "independent" (individualistic).
Gish Jen