From Sydney Morning Herald:
…… Chinese society is experiencing a widening income and lifestyle gulf, between rural and urban residents, rich and poor, those with a city “hukou” – a residence card that gives access to education and health care, and those adrift and homeless.
And as for the return of the reviled bourgeoisie and the downtrodden proletariat? Too explosive. Hanafin says the Government prefers to explain the difference in cultural, rather than economic, terms. “The same person who in 1961 had fine wine, nice clothes and was bourgeois is now called high quality. It’s a new, positive term,” he says. The “di sushi”, or low quality person, is negative and lacks initiative.The biggest question is how successful this balancing act of economic growth and Marxist philosophical code will be in the long run. “You can’t predict these things,” Hanafin says. “Anything could happen. The whole society could collapse.” [Full Text]
