ol lower classes. The possibility of Hu s madness is an outlet for Foucquet s need to control him. Hu knew quite well that Foucquet and others were trying to control him, and he rebelled against this. When the workers in the asylum gave Hu the blanket, and he shredded it, he did not do so because he could not retrain himself from shredding it. He said, The blanket was mine to shred, because it was given to me. Hu made the conscious decision to tear up the blanket in opposition to his captors. Hu represents the oppressed lower classes or foreigners, and Spence is sending out the message that they are not simply beings that needed to be controlled. They are living, breathing, thinking humans who have their own ways of life that are just as important as the more wealthy members of society. Spence also brings questions about how to integrate cultures, or whether or not it should be done. Foucquet s whole goal was to prove his theory that ancient religious Chinese texts were originally given to the Chinese by the same God that Christians worshiped. He hoped that by doing this Christianity could spread to the East.9 Having this accomplished would indeed integrate cultures. Even though Foucquet wants to integrate cultures, he is very reluctant to deal with the people from the cultures he wishes to convert. Foucquet has been too distracted by his own duties and his books to take much notice of Hu. It is obvious that he had the sole goal of using Hu to copy his Chinese texts and not learning about Chinese culture to add to the integration of the two. Through the question of how one should go about integrating culture, Spence shows problems that might arise. He gives numerous examples of Hu encountering new technology, such as windmills, that cause him to behave rashly. Whenever he sees anything new to him, he must leap out and look at it. If there s a windmill, he must climb up onto it and study its construction. Spence also portrays the u...
