BEIJING,
Feb.2 -- They always seemed to be together in old times temples
and markets, culture and business, the yin
and yang of life.
But the temple fair tradition didn't make a comeback in China until the
beginning of the reform in the early 1980s. That was when people began earning
some extra cash to spend. Things such as dangerous acrobatic shows and fake
Western paintings were enough to generate good sales.
In 20 years, as the once-ubiquitous, baggy Mao jackets disappeared from the
cities, more colour, more style, and more originality were brought into the
tradition, and the fairs began spreading to more places and reaching more
people.
Venues: from the old (and dirty) to the new
