21st Century: Query 169 (I.M. Pei and Melania Trump)
“Be the best, not necessarily the original.” ~ I. M. Pei was a Chinese-American architect. Born in Guangzhou but raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai , Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the garden villas at Suzhou , the traditional retreat of the scholar-gentry to which his family belonged. In 1935, he moved to the United States and enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania ’s architecture school, but he quickly transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Given that Pei was one of the greatest architects who ever lived and that his award-winning designs are one-of-a-kind, how is his statement ironic? “Be Best.” ~ Melania Trump is a Slovenian-American former fashion model and the current first lady of the United States , as the wife of the 45th president of the United States Donald Trump . Given the current political climate stirred up by her husband, how is FLOTUS’s slogan ironic?