Imagine a time traveller from Mao Zedong’s China – say a Red Guard – landing in a Chinese city today, nearly half a century since Mao’s death in 1976 brought the Cultural Revolution to an end. Picture her in baggy unisex khaki and blunt bob, gaping at women her age prancing past in heels and short skirts. See her take in the soaring buildings, bustling shopping centres and pumping night clubs.
She looks at a newspaper. Some things make sense: ‘America’s democracy is in decline,’ one headline declares. There are familiar reports on model workers and the same sort of photos of leaders visiting factories and welcoming foreign presidents. But what’s this about weight management clinics, plastic surgery and young people looking for romance? She cannot make sense of half of it. And what, China has officially expressed its condolences over the death of a…Pope? What is this brave new world?
Mao’s portrait still watches over Tiananmen Square.
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