Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

A Rat

A rat jumps up on Mark's desk during class. He slams a large dictionary on the pest and kills it. The students enjoy the event, telling Mark that he is displaying real gong fu. They dub Mark the "Rat-Killing Hero". The students convince Mark to turn the rat's corpse into the Rat Collection Office where he will be given five cents. He finds out that foreigners cannot collect rewards for dead rats because an official paper would have to be issued evidencing that China has a rat problem, which they try to hide.

A Night Ride

Mark has a brief encounter with a beautiful Chinese woman. She is a doctor who loves to read English language books and borrows some from Mark. She is ill with terminal leukemia and tells Mark that he is lucky to travel the world...