China looks to optimism, not nostalgia

We are fond of talking of a world divided into different groups. We sometimes use ethnic, or cultural, or political attributes to create the basis of these differentiations. Multi-party democracies versus one-party states; monarchies versus republics; state-led economies versus market ones. Alliances are created on the back of similarities in these domains. At least, that is the claim.

In the current world, however, with its complexity and diversity, there are more subtle, and often more ineffable grounds on which to try to characterize nations. In the past decade, some analysts talked of a world where countries were either hungry, or full - where they wanted more than they currently had, or were already almost satiated on what they had got. These days, though, it seems everyone is hungry for something. The question is what will ever satisfy them.

Catching the mood of a nation is not easy. After all, there are the many, many individual voices, and hopes, and hearts that constitute what any nation is. How on earth can this all be summarized very easily? Everyone has their own voice. Why try to trap it all into one dominant narrative? The best one can say is that things are very complicated now - especially because social media has let us see voices that once did not have easy outlets. Everyone can speak. The question is whether they want to or not.