China has changed dramatically since the mid-1980’s. It’s not just the increase in the number of freeways, billboards, and skyscrapers that disorient long-time visitors. Even a visit to a bookstore can shock anyone who first came to know China decades ago, when it seemed inconceivable that works by non-Marxist theorists would ever outnumber those by Marxists. A theatre company has even been allowed to stage “Animal Farm,” George Orwell’s famous anti-authoritarian allegory, once known to socialist-bloc readers only via underground editions.
China has changed dramatically since the mid-1980’s. It’s not just the increase in the number of freeways, billboards, and skyscrapers that disorient long-time visitors. Even a visit to a bookstore can shock anyone who first came to know China decades ago, when it seemed inconceivable that works by non-Marxist theorists would ever outnumber those by Marxists. A theatre company has even been allowed to stage “Animal Farm,” George Orwell’s famous anti-authoritarian allegory, once known to socialist-bloc readers only via underground editions.