The Chinese media storm did not subside once Locke and his family arrived in Beijing. His strolls through the capital’s diplomatic quarter, his photogenic family, even his workouts—he could hold a plank for fifty-two minutes—became fodder for the adoring Chinese press, which used the ambassador’s everyday life to mock Communist officialdom. In that sense, Locke’s basic decency and positive attitude fed into a long-standing Chinese belief that the American spirit of self-improvement had something to teach China. That it was a spirit refracted through a Chinese American only made the story more
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