inappropriate humor

As one or two people might have noticed, the Brothers Grinn mailing list recently started up again after a four-month hiatus.

The topic I decided to pick for our current series was a series of letters my partner sent to me detailing his trip to China to adopt a Chinese girl from an orphanage in Wuhan. Today we received a letter, which I will not post in its entirety, that objected to our recent installments.

"Such ethnocentricity, and lack of sensitivity to the unique cultural differences this little one will face as she grows are far more important than any humor to be derived from belittling the experience," our reader wrote. "One hopes that as this family meshes and grows together, the parents will come to understand and appreciate the culture from which she sprang. If they do not, there will be much heartache when she is of age."

The first letter
The second letter
The third letter
The fourth letter

I'm not particularly flummoxed by the criticism -- I've re-read everything in the series and don't see anything inappropriate -- but the writer is actually one of our longstanding readers and has always loved our wit.

The only specific comment was about Griselda (her real name is Alyssa) folding her napkin in origami. Origami is a Japanese craft and Alyssa is Chinese, but she nonetheless did fold the napkin in such a manner. I'm using David's letters as my starting point for the jokes.

My best guess is that the letter-writer was either in a bad mood, or has some other baggage she's bringing into the situation that has made jokes about the situation seem ethnocentric, even though the bulk of the jokes have been at Smirkov's expense. (LIke him being too dull-witted that a mob is after his head, not out to say hello and give him a welcome party.)

Ah well. In standard satirist approach, in the most recent mailing I included a link to Human Rights Watch and their report on human rights abuses in China.