Bands are playing; people walk with their children and take pictures. The Chinese writers, the UCLA Chinese-American writers’ conference hosts, and Allen Ginsberg and I—for we stayed on to accompany our foreign guests—have just seen the film America the Beautiful. Along with the standard scenic tourist shots, the film offered a healthy dose of American militarism. Tanks rolled on parade, soldiers fired salutes, cadets trained with weapons at Annapolis and West Point—all to swelling music and rising choruses. We have emerged, blinking, from this film and entered again the bright Disneyland streets. The Chinese writers seem content, perfectly familiar with Disney paraphernalia. In China you can buy Donald Duck on pink thermos bottles, Mickey Mouse and Goofy on handkerchiefs. Nearly everyone has seen Disney cartoons. A sophisticated and cosmopolitan Chinese writer named Liu Binyan is strolling down the street with Allen Ginsberg. At home in Beijing, Liu Binyan is a muckraking journalist.
