Servant of the State – The New Yorker

On the afternoon of October 18, 2009, the writer Wang Meng addressed a
full house at the Frankfurt International Book Fair. It was the fair’s
last day, and China, the festival’s guest of honor that year, had worked
hard to demonstrate its cultural appeal. The secretary-designate of
China’s Communist Party had joined the German chancellor in opening a
China-themed hall. The pianist Lang Lang shared a stage with German
artists at the old Frankfurt opera house. There were performances of the
Peking Opera, displays of Chinese folk arts, and forums on China’s
growing economic and political might.