Holding her first album, which she gave me, Mimi, 21, is a Hunanese Folk Indie singer now studying Chinese literature at Beijing Normal University.  She reads classical Chinese literature and modern western literature.  She wasn’t aware that there was an election going on right now in the US and didn’t know the names of the candidates.  Ignoring foreign most foreign news, her main focus is on events relevant for ordinary Chinese people.  In her opinion, major problems facing China right now are environmental degredation, the growing wealth gap (she has an ipod nano), and, she says smiling, government.  These challenges are similar to those facing other countries and the foremost one at this moment is probably the financial crisis, which she has heard quite a bit about.  Her colorful bag was specially made for her by a friend.