A Chinese Warrior. The students give you gifts, there's no way around it--out of a necessity that can be hard to fathom. Not a bad thing, really--and usually after the grades have been filed, so it has nothing to do with exerting untoward influence. More a psychological transaction--a way for the individual--the young person who's listened to your words, and comments and advice, over the course of a semester, to offer thanks, and, in some way to assert--or better, to remind you--hint at--who they are. Often having to do with where they come from, as if the tokens of a civilization (China, Korea, Japan) could stand in for the young person himself. (Herself, here.) And no doubt I'd have to better understand the tradition of gift-giving in Asia, the meaning of these gilded plaster warrior figures in a culture with such healthy self-esteem. (In the US it might have been Paul Bunyan with Babe the Blue Ox? Or a statue of George Washington, presented formally at the end of a semester? Or even Kanye West?) But my analogies are no doubt misplaced, so I'm left to ponder--and meanwhile, this hearty fellow (weighing in at about 4 pounds) will demand his own destination...
Guanyu, the Warrior God...
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