There is something about China that is bracingly blunt and makes for great writing actually. I think there's something to do with the fact that most people have never been interviewed and they find the encounter kind of a little bit startling, he says. "I've also had the experience of knowing people in China for years and years and years"
Evan Osnos is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury.
“I'm always trying to get inside a subculture. That's the thing that I think has been the most enduring, attractive element for me. Is there a world that has its own manners and vocabulary and internal rhythms and status structure? And who looks down on whom? And why? And who venerates whom? Who's a big deal in these worlds? And if I can get into that, it doesn't even really matter to me that much what the subculture is. I'm fascinated by trying to map that thing out.”
Show notes:
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