CHENGDU, China — Peter Marsters, a colleague, friend, and Fulbright Fellow studying at Sichuan University, led me to the basement of the Shangri-La Hotel here the other night. “You have to see this painting of Bill Clinton and Monica,” he said.
The back story is that a Chinese artist and friend of the hotel owner painted an homage to Bill, Monica, and one of America’s great political sex scandals. The hotel owner displays the painting in a lower level hallway of one of Chengdu’s best hotels that’s said to be near the entrance to a brothel.
I had no time to verify or vouch for the accuracy of the back story. But the painting, about six feet tall, is genuine. I especially admire the Hillary figure scrambling in the rear — beseeching, aghast, embarrassed.
— Keith Schneider
