On Sept. 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at a welcome banquet jointly hosted by Washington State government and friendly communities in Seattle. President Xi once said reading has become one of his ways of living. In this speech, President Xi mentioned many books representing the American spirit, revealing Xi’s belief in the coexistence of different cultures and their exchanges.

The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers was written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to defend the U.S. Constitution. The book provides a detailed explanation and analyses of the U.S. Constitution, systematically argues for the importance of checks and balances. Even the first President of the United States George Washington commented that this book would be of importance to the future generations.

Common Sense

The author of the book Thomas Paine was an English-American political theorist and philosopher. He participated in the American Revolution, and later joined the French Revolution. In January 1776, Paine published the pamphlet of Common Sense, which later became an important arm of thoughts for the American people on their way of seeking independence and freedom.

The Old Man and the Sea

Written by Ernest Miller Hemingway, this fiction implicates a deep reflection on fate and life. The descriptions on the stormy weather, the surge, the old man, and sharks have left President Xi a deep impression. He even went to Cuba himself to experience Hemingway’s spiritual world and the actual environment in which he wrote the book.

Walden

Walden was written by Henry David Thoreau, a representative of American transcendentalists. Walden is a reflection upon Thoreau’s experience of two years, two month, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond. “I cannot come nearer to God and Heaven than I live to Walden even. I am its stony shore, and the breeze that passes o’er; in the hollow of my hand are its water and its sand, and its deepest resort lies high in my thought.”

President Xi also mentioned other American writers like Walt Whitman, Mark Twain and Jack London. Reading is not just for pleasure, but also can be as important as the loving care for a nation, a country, even the whole world.