Quotation

Unequal lives give rise to unequal dreams. About ten years ago China Central Television interviewed Chinese youngsters on Children’s Day, asking them what gift they would most like to receive. A boy in Beijing wanted a Boeing jet of his own, while a girl in the northwest said bashfully, “I want a pair of sneakers.” Though much the same age, these two children were worlds apart in their dreams, and the girl is probably no more likely to get a pair of sneakers than the boy is to get his own plane. === China today is a land of huge disparities. It’s like walking down a street where on this side are gaudy pleasure palaces and on that side desolate ruins, or like sitting in a strange theater where a comedy is being performed on one side of the stage and a tragedy on the other.