Washington University

Their slightly parted mouths, scrunched-up brows, and sparkling eyes grappled with the sheer absurdity of the proposed premise. I watch it all, ready to continue. “And so,” I emphatically declare while wildly gesticulating, as the class bell begins to ring. “That’s how wax statues of mangoes became a revered, inviolable symbol of China’s Communist Party.” As the denouement dissolves the storytelling tension, waves of befuddled laughter ripple through the audience. And then, there’s a deluge of that feeling, not just the standard fare of euphoria present in successful social interactions, but…