This set Xu wondering whether he really did look like a Native American, and whether there were any cultural links too. When he was teaching Pacific Rim Studies at the university, students would sometimes ask him about connections between the Americas and China.
他在大學教環太平洋文化時，偶爾被學生問起關於美洲與中國的關係，總是瞠目以對，卻也逐漸引起研究興趣。