A Letter to Aixin Jue Luo

TWENTY-SIX years have passed since Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, uttered his stirring speech. "To be rich is glorious," he said. China then changed: free trade was implemented, villages were transformed into modern cities. Economy became the commander in chief, while ideology and history became souvenirs.

At the end of last November, Tempo reporter Arif Zulkifli visited Beijing, Qinghai, and Xiamen in Fujian Province and discovered a China with an altered face.

Tempo

February 15, 2005

AIXIN Jue Luo, I'm sending this letter from a faraway land, from someone you don't know, although it's not as if we've never met. I saw you in a room that was not spacious on the northern edge of the Forbidden City in the center of Beijing city.

A stuffy room: around 100 square meters with paintings hung and scattered here and there. In corners were antique jugs the size of adults with bright colors. Everything was squeezed in, pressed together,

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