I read it when I was really young, so it imprinted as an idyllic myth of sorts. I discovered it was just one of a series (most of which take place in China) later on in middle and high school, and by senior year I was reading Water Margins and Romance of the Three Kingdoms in class. Learning Chinese was especially trendy when I entered college in '05, so it seemed fun to dive into something I had carried my whole life.
