The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present

by John Pomfret

An event that occurred on the morning of Monday, April 5, is still disputed. Was it a providential accident or part of a well-thought-out plan? One of the American players was Glenn Cowan, a long-haired stoner from California with a predilection for playing while high. According to one version of the event, Cowan unwittingly boarded the Chinese team bus on his way to the stadium. The other version, from Japan’s Kyodo News Service, is that Cowan, who was sporting a US team jacket, was invited to hitch a ride. Either way, after a few minutes of awkward silence, Cowan addressed the Chinese team through its interpreter. “I know all this, my hat, my hair, my clothes look funny to you,” he said, pointing to his hippie garb. “But there are many, many people who look like me and who think like me. We, too, have known oppression in our country, and we are fighting against it.”