Iron & Silk

Mark Franklin (Mark Salzman, on whose book the screenplay, which he also co-wrote, is based) is a recent college graduate who arrives in China in 1982 after accepting a position as an English instructor at a small mainland college. A confirmed sinophile (he claims to have seen every kung fu movie ever made and, while studying martial arts as a teenager, became fluent in Chinese by washing dishes in a Chinatown restaurant), Mark has determined that he must go to the source of Chinese culture and philosophy to gain an auth...