I ran across a statement the other day that whose source I can't remember but whose content I don't want to forget. It said that great music died in the 80s, and justified this by saying that period music reflects the attitudes of the times' youth. Then something like, 60s music was about protest, 70s music was about experimentation, the 80s was about hedonism and greed, and that every since the 90s, since the fall of the Evil Empire, we've been in a period of stability and non-change that is marked by apathy and mediocrity (and I would add empty irony and absurdity; cf too many examples to count, but starting with Napoleon Dynamite and Facebook groups like I go out of my way to step on an exceptionally crunchy leaf).

I was reminded of that quote the other day shopping in Carrefour and seeing the same Fisher Price toys that I played with (and my mom played with) as a kid, which for the Chinese customers are completely new. Change is the name of the game in China, so much is new and nobody has all the answers.