5 ms·
An interesting fact I learned recently: Xi Jinping is huge Goethe fan. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n11/edward-luttwak/goethe-in-china https://www.lrb.c
by Veen 5y ago
An interesting fact I learned recently: Xi Jinping is huge Goethe fan.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n11/edward-luttwak/goethe-in-china https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n11/edward-luttwak/goeth...
- Borrible 5y agoOf course, admiring German classic is something of a necessary prerequisite for Chinese career bigwigs.Must have something to do with Hegel and Marx.
- bcbrown 5y agoIt has nothing to do with Hegel and Marx in this case, if you read the article. Around the time of the Cultural Revolution, Xi was banished to "a miserably poor mountain village", where the only book available was Goethe's Faust, which he reread until he knew it by heart.
- Borrible 5y agoNice. How come, there was a German classic laying around and not the Dream of the Red Chamber?
- FabHK 5y agoYes. Apparently there are very few languages in which a complete edition of Goethe's opus is available, and Chinese is one of them. Thanks to Xi Jinping.
- a9h74j 5y agoRelated: China looks to the Western Classics.[1] Apparently if you are looking for a professorship now, you might need to go East to go West. [1] https://supchina.com/2022/01/13/china-looks-to-the-western-classics/ https://supchina.com/2022/01/13/china-looks-to-the-western-c...