The China Syndrome

I was interested in reading “Hardly a Forbidden City for Filming” (by Paul Francis Duke, Sept. 24), especially since my 25-year-old son left in August to spend the next school year in China, studying language and history at Nanjing University.

Imagine my surprise when the very next e-mail I received from my son recounted a recent trip to Shanghai and included a description of half the buildings in Shanghai as “straight out of ‘Blade Runner,’ ” the very same movie image evoked by Duke when describing Beijing. I sent my son a copy of the article and I thought Duke might enjoy hearing his thoughts on it.

He wrote, “It’s interesting to see that Duke had found the same kind of aesthetic contradictions and observations that seem to be echoed by many of my countrymen over here, as well as most of the European students from U.K. and Germany. . . . I still haven’t had as much experience dealing with the bureaucracy as he, but the little that I have would also seem to reinforce his account of the state of affairs. Just the same, he has pretty much nailed it right on the head.”

COLLEEN MOSS

Torrance