In November, 2011, a group of American creative giants—Meryl Streep, Yo-Yo Ma, and others—traveled to Beijing for a high-culture take on ping-pong diplomacy. TheU.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culturewas the work of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, headed by Orville Schell, and it produced a four-day mash-up intended to give each side more exposure to the other, beyond the contentious debates over economic and politics. The filmmakers Joel Coen and Lu Chuan talked movies; the chef Alice Waters and the author Michael Pollan discussed organic cuisine with Chinese food activists. It culminated in a performance of music, poetry, and dance at “The Egg,” China’s national opera house, arranged by Yo-Yo Ma and Damien Woetzel, the former principle dancer from the New York City Ballet.

Among the visitors, only one was making his first trip outside the United States—or, for that matter, was the first member of his family to do so. Charles (Lil Buck) Riley is “the Baryshnikov of jookin,” as he was once described in theTimes. He is the most famous practitioner of the Memphis style of hip-hop footwork. When Lil Buck’s earlier collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma was posted to YouTube, it drew more than two million views.

His four days of dancing across Beijing—and on the Great Wall of China—have been distilled into a short film by Ole Schell (son of Orville), who discovered that traveling around Beijing in Lil Buck’s orbit was like “experiencing the culture again for the first time.” Older Chinese viewers were baffled, but “you go into any Beijing or Shanghai club and they will be blasting the latest from rap songs from the United States”—without ever having seen it up-close.

The film, here, will remind you of the thrill of seeing China for the first time. I posed some questions to Lil Buck, at the link below.

(Source: newyorker.com)

Cressida Leyshon talks to Thomas Pierce, whose story “Shirley Temple Three,” appears in this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/VKUFXQ

Cressida Leyshon discusses the fiction story in this week’s issue, “Breatharians,” with its author, Callan Wink: http://nyr.kr/RucD0b

The Toronto trio METZ is rude, severe, and excellent. They make rock music, all of it loud, most of it precise without feeling checked. It’s raucous stuff, heavily indebted to music recorded for the Chicago label Tough & Go in the eighties, and recordings made in the nineties for the D.C. label Dischord. We are happy to be streaming their self-titled début album, exclusively, for one week. A few days ago, I spoke on the phone with the band’s guitarist and singer, Alex Edkins.

Click-through to hear the album, and for more from Sasha Frere-Jones on METZ: http://nyr.kr/PoslIw

Photograph by Robby Reis.

Read “Fischer vs. Spassky,” fiction from this week’s issue by Lara Vapnyar.

Here, Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman discusses Vapnyar’s story with her. 

Aside from producing some of the magazine’s funniest humor pieces, Paul Rudnick has written such plays as “Jeffrey” and “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” and screenplays for “Addams Family Values” and “In & Out,” among others. His latest stage project is “Cabin Pressure,” a one-act monologue that opened this week as part of the series “Summer Shorts,” at 59E59. (It shares a bill with a musical about real estate and a breakup drama by Neil LaBute.) Peter Bartlett stars as a celebrity-obsessed flight attendant receiving a medal of valor from the President—for a feat of heroism that turns out to be somewhat less than heroic. We spoke to Paul about the play, the plight of the flight attendant, and space diapers.  Click-through to read the conversation: http://nyr.kr/NkzqMY

Seven Protesters, Five Questions

The New Yorker: How long are you planning to stay?

David I.: An answer I’m sure you’re getting a lot is “as long as it takes.” Mine is, “I don’t know.” Anyone who says this is sustainable or will make a difference worth a damn is speaking from hope or they’re lying. The police could sweep this place tonight. I hope they don’t.

-We went to Zuccotti Park to interview seven Occupy Wall Street protesters: http://nyr.kr/rZ1qUl. (Read the first two installments.)