ABSTRACT
Many of the changes in China after the death of Mao in 1976received broad popular support from the majority of the Chinesepeople and, in general, the last two decades of the century were decades of hope. Prosperity reached into the countryside as farmers set their own prices for their products and built new homes or added new rooms to the old ones. More opportunities for education, and even for travel within China, opened new doors for many, who saw the new government policies as the answer to China’s – and their own – future prosperity.
