Summary Of The Question Of Hu By Jonathan D Spence

In The Question of Hu written by Jonathan D. Spence, there are many differences in culture found in the book between Chinese customs and Western Europe customs. There are also plenty of mishaps in communication that contribute to the imprisoning of John Hu. The examples of mishap in communication begin from the very beginning of the story. John Hu is selected by Father Foucquet to travel to Western Europe with him. Hu believes that Foucquet holds a position of high-credibility and deserves much respect due to his beard that reaches to his waist and his very colorful attire. In reality, Foucquet is just a man that feels he is behind in life, and wants to return back home to continue his work in his own research office. Hu also believes that

He got the feeling that his obsession with Chinese work was a little bit much, and a lot of people knew Foucquet as someone that crazy or, in other words, a “crackpot”. Another lack of communication that led to a misconception is when Foucquet decided to pick Hu to travel with him back to the west, it was actually more of a decision that was made out of necessity because he couldn’t find anyone to go with him. Since Hu came along at the final moment, Foucquet felt that it was the work of God that sent Hu his way to join him on his journey, when in reality Hu wasn’t sent to Foucquet

Because of this, Hu would often venture off into areas that were run-down and depressed, poor agriculturally, or simply somewhere than any other everyday citizen wouldn’t aspire to go to. This also led to a false image of Hu, as something or someone that belonged in these poor areas, when in reality he was just trying to collect information for a piece of writing he would put together later. It was also difficult for Hu to communicate simply because he didn’t speak the language of all the others in the western world. When French, German, Italian, and English are more common, he was only able to speak Chinese, which almost nobody knew how to