A changing China

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 9

A changing China

by

GRAHAME ARNSHAW,

through NZPA-Reuter Peking The changes come so fasti in China these days, it is! i sometimes hard to keep track of them all, and difficult to guess what they are leading to. China, formerly the most|i vociferous of anti-capitalist ■

I countries, is now throwing itself into a modernisation programme relying to a large extent on Western expertise, equipment. and money. The combination makes for some strange sights. Alongside long political commentaries on revolution and other traditional topics, the Shanghai daily newspaper, “Wen Wei Bao,” has recently carried full-page advertisements from a camera i company. Earlier this year, foreign cigarettes, alcohol, and that peerless representative of American influence, CocaCola, went on sale in Peking for the first time in many The items are for sale only to foreigners through the hotels and the friendship store, which is restricted to foreigners, and where the quality and range of goods is far better than in ordinary shops. The foreign goods are sold only in return for selected foreign currencies, and in rhe case of Coke, which costs title a. can in the

(friendship store and one dollar in the hotels, only (United States dollars are (accepted. ( The Chinese people are now being given a regular diet of Western culture for the first time since the Cultural Revolution that racked the country during the second half of the 19605. Peking radio still features'

long political monologues, [but among the polemics, an; [increasing amount of enter-; Itainment in the Western) sense is being heard. A Western opera was aired’ [recently for the first time since the early 19605. and ; the song, “Doh-Re-Mi,” ifro.n the "Sound of Music.”' first made popular by Julie .Andrews, is being given a Jot of airplay at the mo-1 {ment. I More and more foreign! films are being shown, many) jof Peking’s local cinemas' now screening the film, i |“Camelot,” starring Richard! {Harris. Peking television is not as! boring as it used to be' ’either. Both radio and tele-! {vision are carrying many; [hours of English-language I [lessons every week. Chinese translations of' Western books are snapped up as soon as they appear.) Long queues formed outside! a bookshop recently for instance, when the Chinese-! language version of the I memoirs of former .American!

I President, Richard Nixon, I went on sale. ' With China’s leaders allow-! ling their citizens to come into; |contact with so many West-1 ern influences, it is not sur-i I prising that interest ini Western-style democracy is’ on the increase. The late Chairman Vlaoj Tse-tung has come in for a lot of criticism since limited

[free speech bloomed in i'China late last year. Al- • ithough the country's leaders i) continue to refer to him in y; reverent tones, the Chairman I'is obviously not held in the same esteem as in the past. All over Peking, there are '(huge red advertising billI boards with slogans from ! the works of Mao. On many i of the billboards the paint is (peeling, obliterating whole 'characters, but no restoraijtion work seems to be done. {Mao’s mausoleum, closed a ’few months ago for “maintenance work,” has not been ! reopened. [ The normalising of relations between China and the ■ United States has resulted in !a huge influx of Americans, [both tourists and business-) 'men, and Peking’s facilities' {for foreigners, who are re-! ' stricted to four hotels, are' being strained at the seams. ' The average Chinese is I not allowed to enter hotels) [and restaurants reserved for ’Westerners, and although) ■most foodstuffs in China are) , rationed, foreigners are [allowed to eat as much as' Ithey like. ’■