Socialism is Good is an old song that used to be very popular in Mao-era China. Wang Wei, a 53-year-old retired worker from a state-owned motorbike factory, seems to have taken a renewed interest in singing the song. As a typical Chinese citizen, Mr Wang lives in an apartment of 60 square meters with his wife, but has access to over 100 digital channels on his television and a two megabyte broadband ADSL connection to the internet. “Socialism is much better than its previous version,” he commented with a wrinkled smile during a chat with me, “and you feel that life starts to have quality.” It was unclear to me exactly what made Mr Wang draw such a conclusion, but his six-hour involvement in media communication every day clearly plays an important part. The changes in the media landscape run parallel with the societal changes that affected ordinary Chinese in a transitional society.
