Word: yuan
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...unemployed salesclerk in Peking, nervously clutched her handbag as the crowded, dingy train lurched through the countryside. The bag contained more than 2,000 yuan (about $1,200), which she had borrowed from friends and relatives. Liu's destination: Canton, 1,400 miles and 36 hours away, China's gateway to Hong Kong and now a bustling center of free enterprise. Upon her arrival, she rushed from one street vendor to another, buying up an assortment of modern-style dresses, blue jeans, sandals and high-heeled shoes. Twelve days later, Liu was back in Peking. Within a couple...
...farm. "I have many things already," he says. "A bicycle, a watch. We have a sewing machine. At the end of this year, I will first return the money I borrowed from the brigade. My goal next year? To buy a television set. It will cost 400 yuan [$280]. After that our income will grow, and life will keep on getting better...
...JOURNALIST. "Most important are the changes in the fundamentals," says Yuan Xianlu, 52, foreign affairs editor of the official Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, which has a worldwide circulation of 6.3 million. Yuan, a tall, wiry man who has been with the paper for three decades, warns that easy political slogans and simplified explanations will not solve China's problems. He has seen too many of them before. "Many people say that everything bad is the fault of the Gang of Four," he says. "Some of our friends in the West have had doubts about this...
Among China's defects, Yuan mentions its long imitation of the Soviet system, which was not relevant to local conditions. Like many other intellectuals, he also blames the country's "feudal heritage," the centuries during which China's economy remained backward and "the Emperor's word was law." Adds Yuan: "One thing that the common people get very angry about is the special privileges of high-ranking officials. There used to be a saying in the old society that once a man got promoted, even his dogs and chickens could go to heaven." This notion lingers...
...TIME editors asked Yuan whether rising expectations and greater tolerance of criticism might hold long-term dangers for China. His answer: "In the rural areas the farmers don't care about democracy. What they care about is good rulers. In the absence of democracy there are only two ways for people to show dissatisfaction - with silence or with rebellion. Now there is something in between. There is criticism, and that is healthier...