Word: saar
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first it was like being on another planet," said Saar after he returned to Hong Kong. "For at least two days, no one was quite sure what he was seeing, and then gradually things began to fall into place and we began to see a society and a nation that was very much unified and organized-with a level of overall poverty but absolutely no misery, no hunger. My impression was of a nation very much together, very strong and reliant not on police or enforced discipline but on genuine conviction. There are no beggars, no suffering visible...
...people are adequately dressed in their blue denims," reported Saar. But there are signs of austerity. "Many of the jackets are very heavily patched, but there was no one in rags or destitute. The Chinese are obviously healthy. I didn't see many fat people. They're a very fit nation now, and most of them are glowing with health...
...Saar was impressed by the self-confidence of the Chinese. "Here was an Asian nation that owed nothing to anybody, and in consequence one looked them in the eye and they looked you right back. They seemed very content within themselves, content with their lot and sure of themselves, knowing where they are going." He also found that the much-remarked honesty in Communist China is still there. "At one point, someone came down three floors to give Fischbeck a tiny coin worth perhaps a tenth of a cent-his change from a cup of coffee." Chinese life is beset...
...Saar found Peking "swept by harsh winds and with storms of dust swirling across Tienanmen Square." He was impressed by the Russian-Gothic buildings fronting the square, which seemed "built as if for a race of men 10 feet tall." Peking's immensely wide streets are "strangely silent" much of the time, with virtually no traffic except for trol ley buses towing trailers. "The streets," said Saar, "are polished every day by the passage of thousands and thousands of bicycles- the standard means of transportation. In the morning one heard the clopping hooves of horses bringing in produce from...
...American visitors learned that one of the current popular campaigns in China is emulation of Mao's long march, and columns of children set off into the countryside in the mornings. "Also part of the scene," says Saar, "is the sound of whistles and the shouting of time in the old German army style, as great masses of children of all ages drill outside." He got the feeling of "a population marshaled by a military system but not overtly for military purposes." Among the hundreds of army men he saw, very few carried rifles, and the drilling children...