Once again, the early-20th-century writer Lu Xun, whose scathing critiques of the pre-revolutionary Chinese social order won him a place in the Chinese Communist pantheon, even though he himself was not a Marxist, has provided a popular phrase for much that is amiss in Chinatoday. In recent weeks, “Zhao jia ren,” or “Zhao family,” from Lu Xun’s novella “The True Story of Ah Q,” has resurfaced as a disparaging term for China’s rich and politically well-connected. Read more
