American kids writing mash letters to Grandpa Wen?

Maybe Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s Facebook campaign is working after all. Xinhua reports that Americans kids are now going wild for Wen. The really bizarre article quotes letters that American students apparently wrote to Chinese leaders expressing admiriation for their earthquake-response efforts. Here’s one from 12-year-old Hannah Rudoff from Portland, Oregon: Dear Grandpa Hu and ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Maybe Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's Facebook campaign is working after all. Xinhua reports that Americans kids are now going wild for Wen. The really bizarre article quotes letters that American students apparently wrote to Chinese leaders expressing admiriation for their earthquake-response efforts. Here's one from 12-year-old Hannah Rudoff from Portland, Oregon:

Maybe Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s Facebook campaign is working after all. Xinhua reports that Americans kids are now going wild for Wen. The really bizarre article quotes letters that American students apparently wrote to Chinese leaders expressing admiriation for their earthquake-response efforts. Here’s one from 12-year-old Hannah Rudoff from Portland, Oregon:

Dear Grandpa Hu and Grandpa Wen, your love to the quake-affected in Sichuan has again won worldwide respect for China, I hope all the leaders of other countries can also make it this way in their administration […] I admire your people-first style and selfless spirit, and I pay my respect to you!" 

Rudoff’s classmate Elizabeth Krasch, addressed her note to China’s military:

Thank you, Uncle PLA!" said Elizabeth in the newly acquired Chinese vocabulary "Jiefungjun Shushu" meaning uncle soldier of the People’s Liberation Army, "You saved many lives from ruins. You bring hope to each and every corner of China. We will never forget your love to the young, the old and to the people! I will never forget this new Chinese word that I learned today!"

Now, I attended an elementary school that was so PC that the card game "war" was banned because of its violent overtones and we learned about César Chávez before George Washington, but I still don’t think my teachers would have had us write fan letters to communist party leaders as a class project.

(Thanks to reader AS for the link.)

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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