IN THE West, popular media coverage of China’s recent past often swings between two types of stories. There are those that emphasize how much and how quickly China has transformed itself in recent decades, in which journalists enthuse about skyscrapers in Shanghai and KFC in Kunming. And then there are stories that stress the endurance of the past, in which reporters remind their audiences of the tight control the CCP maintains over the media, the economy, and many other aspects of Chinese society. Readers might find themselves wondering: is the big story how much China has changed since the days of Mao—or how little?