Shown in 1990. Clive James went to Shanghai in the summer of 1989, there were student protests going on and at first the Chinese state police were turning a blind eye to it.
Clive James was no fan of communism. In this postcard he talked to several women who went through a cultural education. One of them lived a bourgeois life as a girl.
Shanghai was developed by westerners. It's waterfront was modelled on Liverpool. It was now a fading, dirty overcrowded city. You see people doing their laundry in a dirty river where sewage flowed through.
Everywhere Clive went it was crowded. He went on a bike where the tyre burst as he tried to navigate other cyclists. The local buses had people rushing for a seat and hoped the bus did not break down.
Luckily Clive found a Shanghai and China going through change. The student protests came to nothing. Clive left China hoping the old regime would come to its senses, instead they brought in more repression. The young were left disappointed.
Where China transformed was through its interpretation of communism. Money and profit were no longer dirty words.
Once upon a time I would go abroad and encounter wealthy Japanese tourists. Now they have been replaced by the Chinese nouveau riche.