Here's a comment on my CBC Radio Commentary heard on Early
Edition on May 21st, at approximately 6:45 am, from Dr. Jan
Walls.  Dr. Walls is the Director of the David See-Chai
Lam Centre for International Communications at Simon Fraser
University.  He is also former cultural attache for the Canadian
Embassy in Beijing, and currently an advisor or board member for
many organizations.  Most recently he was invited to Boston
by Yo Yo Ma to perform his “clapper tales” at the Peabody Essex
Museum. http://www.pem.org/events/silkroads.php 

Hello from Seattle, Todd.

I wanted to congratulate you, by the way, for the excellently worded
“Commentary” I hear you deliver on CBC's Early Edition the other
day.  I think you're on to something, which may have to do with
what I would call “misplaced cross-cultural expectations,” a phenomenon
we noticed when comparing the very different responses to “Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon” among Chinese (PRC and Hong Kong, and recent
Chinese immigrants overseas) and among “foreigners.”  to long-time
kung-fu fans, it was not all that great, while Western people who
didn't know all that much about the kung-fu move tradition, but who had
been “prepped” by “The Matrix,” were entranced by it.  I'm sure
it's much more complex than this, and I look forward to having the time
to figure it out.

I'll talk to you when I get back.

Jan