One time when I was living in Changchun I shared a taxi with a very old
lady and her daughter. Talking about this and that I noticed she was
about ninety some years old so I asked the Granny if she could tell me
the difference between today's China
and the China before the
cultural revolution. She didn't answer right away, instead she sighed,
shed a tear and said "We used to be very poor, but much happier". I
could only tell her she was not alone and her daughter was there for her
so we all smiled and changed the subject.