The idea was that if the doctor looked nerdy, he likely was a serious student of medicine. Mostly it was kind of a bad “in” joke as it was us nerdy Chinese reading westerners who where in the bookstore looking for something interesting.

Just a stereotype, but stereotypes are powerful. I had a friend in China who wrote glasses. She was traveling way out in western China, and was called on by the local police to come and talk to a foreigner who had wandered into a restricted area. The local police wanted to question the poor bloke and figured that he spoke English (not much he was from France) and that since she wore glasses, there was a good possibility that she was educated, and meant she could speak some English. Again, not much.

The nerdy looking doctors on the covers of books are not a guarantee of good material, but so far I’ve not been disappointed!