The Question of Hu by Jonathan D. Spence reconstructs the journey of Father Jean-Francois Foucquet and John Hu from China to Europe during mid-seventeenth century. Throughout the book, Spence addresses several issues on cultural differences between China and Europe, with their varied definitions of sanity, moral obligation, and social status. Hu’s question, after spending almost three years in a lunatic asylum, “why have I been locked up?” raises the question whether Hu is insane or not. Spence provides both supporting and contradicting evidences for Hu’s insanity leaving us to evaluate and come up with a conclusion on our own. My conclusion is that Hu is not clinically insane; he is mistreated and misunderstood by people around him. His explorative, mischievous, and exasperating behaviors are the responses to various factors,
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For example, when he took someone’s horse and rode it around the streets of Port Luis. Hu asked Foucquet “if a horse is being left unused, why someone else might not use it” (Spence 51). His action may be considered stealing but it can also be considered borrowing depending on personal point of view. This event demonstrates that Hu’s traditions and values are different from European culture. Whenever Hu finds something 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 67). This part explains his way of learning which may not be appropriate in public. Hu struggles to adjust to new environments in France, not because he is insane and unable to function in society, but because the new culture is too different from his own. At the Bayneses’ house, he pulled all the bedding and the mattress off the bed because it is too high and insist to sleep with the open window (Spence 72). Being a foreigner in a foreign country, it is reasonable that Hu would be overwhelmed by unfamiliar
For example, when he took someone’s horse and rode it around the streets of Port Luis. Hu asked Foucquet “if a horse is being left unused, why someone else might not use it” (Spence 51). His action may be considered stealing but it can also be considered borrowing depending on personal point of view. This event demonstrates that Hu’s traditions and values are different from European culture. Whenever Hu finds something 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 67). This part explains his way of learning which may not be appropriate in public. Hu struggles to adjust to new environments in France, not because he is insane and unable to function in society, but because the new culture is too different from his own. At the Bayneses’ house, he pulled all the bedding and the mattress off the bed because it is too high and insist to sleep with the open window (Spence 72). Being a foreigner in a foreign country, it is reasonable that Hu would be overwhelmed by unfamiliar