His buddies did their very best to help put Eric in the position ofmoderator for the “Reading Life” forum. They not only thought that“comrade Suo Zhuzi” had the ability to be a moderator but that it wasnice and interesting as well for an American to play that role on a Chineseforum. Jokingly following Mao Zedong’s style in his article “Inmemory of Norman Bethune” writer Xu Xing made a posting to theforum： “comrade Suo Zhuzi， maybe a member of the Republic， or theDemocrat or some other parties of the United States， was in his twentieswhen he was sent by a no-body-knows person to China. He madelight traveling thousands of miles to help us in our BBS cause. As a moderator， Suo Zhuzi exercised his powers， including deletingpostings. An American deletes posts written by Chinese in a Chineseforum！ He never thought he would be doing such a thing beforeand it made him feel a little strange. However， it was very helpful indeepening and widening his contacts with Chinese cyber friends andproved beneficial in bettering his Chinese. With support from friendsand timely advice from his better half， Eric performed his job withouta hitch. Although he occupied the “throne” of moderator for a term ofonly six months， Eric’s story as an “exotic mottled bamboo” has beenon everybody’s lips in the online world.
Envoy of Cultural Exchange Between East and WestAt present Eric is expanding his reading horizons into many otherpure literary forums such as tianyaclub.com， my.clubhi.com and qingyun.
net.cn. With a great interest in Chinese literature， he would spenda lot of time on reading novels which many native young Chinesecouldn’t do at the present day. His favorites include works by WangXiaobo， Su Tong， Yu Hua， Zhu Wen and Han Dong. Recently he hasbeen focusing on the collected works by Lu Yang. He has immense interestin translating these works into English. On his desk a copy of “AChinese-English Dictionary” he has been using for the past two yearsis completely dog-eared， vividly demonstrating his hard work.
Eric believes that many of today’s Chinese novels are excellent.
However， because publishing channels are filled with difficulties，they cannot be efficientlybrought to the internationalmarket. Additionally， Americans’
knowledge of Chineseliterary is woefully lackingand fragmented. Therefore，it is imperative to set upopen international exchangechannels for the purpose ofspreading Chinese works. Hehas already started the process by contacting some American literarymagazines and recommending certain Chinese writers and their worksin hopes to arouse their interest.
As previously mentioned， Eric is working on a collection of Chineseshort stories for Penguin. “The stories that I have picked versusthe stories that you Chinese natives would have picked are somewhatdifferent; I would not necessarily pick up what you Chinese would thinkgood，” he said. “To the Chinese my selections may be a little unexpected.
Anyway these are stories selected for readers from the English world. Itwould only be natural for ‘Penguin’ to consider the feelings and opinionsof an American.” After this project， Eric of course has further aspirations.
“I want to be in the book business. Specifically I want to be inthe business of promoting excellent contemporary Chinese novels toAmerican readers. I also hope to translate these works into English forthe American people. He has conducted the major part of his career in Beijing. “I can’tleave now. There are simply so many cultural resources here. Wouldn’
12 t it be a pity and a waste if I don’t make full use of them?” Of course，Eric makes a short trip back to the States every year. After all that’
s where his roots are. To Eric， even though China is still developingand lags behind the US， it is full of vitality， just like the luxurious andexuberant paddy fields he saw in Guangdong during his trip when hewas ten years old. Beijing in particular is “a city with plenty of vigorand everybody has their dreams， goals， and future plans in mind， eventhough it is a bit untidy， dirty， dusty and windy in spring.” He said， “Tothe contrary， America has a beautiful environment and a well developedsociety， but people there lead an overly comfortable life， lackinggoals and hence motivation. Pursuing is always more vigorous thanpossessing. Like many Americans in Beijing， Eric plans to “watch the fun” ofthe 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He may then return to the Stateswith his wife. There he may go to graduate school or even start a family.
The couple doesn’t have to worry about family planning restrictions（the one child policy） in China since Ma is a Muslim minorityand Eric is an American citizen. And what then? “Back to China ofcourse.” During the course of the interview， we’ve noticed that word“back” always comes up when Eric mentions either the US or China.
He’s truly taken both sides as his homes. Destined to travel betweenthe two cultures for the rest of his life， he will have to switch betweenhis ways of thinking and life accordingly.
“On your return to China， will you consider settling in other citieslike Shanghai or Guangzhou?” we asked him. “No way！ Beijingis still the place to be，” answered Eric. “Shanghai and Guangzhou areflourishing economically， but Beijing is still the cultural center.” That’
s right. “If you want to be a cultural worker，” said a movie conductor，“You have to be born in Beijing even if you have to be reincarnated asa dog！” Bursting into laughter， Eric agreed completely.
Translated by Yang Yaohua
