At a friend's party, fashion trend follower Bo Bo pinned a Chairman Mao's badge on her woolen coat. "Isn't it cool?" said Bo Bo to her friend, "One of my colleague gave it to me as a gift, saying that it can protect me to have a safe life". As her friends clicked their tongues in admiration for it, Bo Bo felt the badge was no less inferior to a latest style of Tiffany jewelry.
In Beijing, things that bear memories of the past, such as big-character posters prevalent during the 1960s to 70s, Chairman Mao's badges, the Red Army hats have been in and out of fashions. In the past, people often saw them on sale in the Silk Market and foreign visitors liked those most.
Now, they become a favorite collection among native Beijing youth. New creations are added into the collection at the same time, such as the wooden printed picture typical at the Cultural Revolution time, "countryside is a big stage for intellectuals to make great achievements", and head image of the Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara both being picked up this time to appear on the lacquer cigarette boxes.
Old-time restaurants are also favorite places for some nostalgia seekers. The New Red Army Club, a restaurant locating deeply in the Dongsi lane, is currently one of the five "hottest" restaurants in Beijing.
The restaurant is designed into a Siheyuan architecture style, a compound with houses around a courtyard typically seen in old Beijing time. Its manager, Long Anzhi is an observer on Chinese issues.
Talking in a light, casual manner, Long said the grand restaurant used to be a secret liaison office during the Machu State period in the early 1900s. Most of the furniture inside the restaurant was made at a time of the foundation of New China. Even the most inconspicuous chair here was once placed inside the Zhongnanhai and seated by some political big heads.
People need to make arrangement before they can have a seat in the restaurant and the usual cost here is about half the local people's average salary. Long said that his customers include foreigners and young Chinese, who both love Chinese culture and Siheyuan lifestyle.
Another restaurant is decorated with things commonly seen at the Cultural Revolution. The Red Books with Chairman Mao's instructions are hung on the wall and the green-color canvas bags, typically worn by the intellectual youth at that time, can be seen on the shelves.
Nostalgic feelings are sensed in the city from time to time. The content might be changed; sometimes it is the steamed corn bread (wo wo tou) and the roast sweet potatoes, which Chinese people normally eat to survive the hard times; sometimes it is an embroidery club that promotes women to pick up the traditional Chinese handicrafts; or it might be the finely-made grass shoes worn during the Red Army Long March period. Whatever way they change, these things bring people back to the old time.
(China News Service February 28, 2006)
