Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1997 11:06:03 -0600 (CST)
   From: Scott Jamison <majks@cyberx.com>

   On Sun, 5 Jan 1997, Gary Kleppe wrote:

   > >polearm.  As Nodoka drew closer, she noticed the woman also had a modern 
   > >military rifle slung over her shoulder.
   > Wonder how she got the gun...
	   Same place she got the walkie-talkie.  

Stolen from the People's Liberation Army (PLA)?  Maybe....

Openly displayed?  I seriously doubt it.

Suffice it to say that for American gun-control types, China is a paradise.

Some years ago, when I was talking with a student couple from the PRC
about renting a room, I of course told them I had a couple of
firearms.  I'll never forget their reaction: the idea of owning TWO was
*totally astounding.*

As long as I'm on a "dump on the PRC" kick, (and since so many Ranma
fanfics are set at least in part in China) sometime later they told me
that Deng's agricultural policies had resulted in a major relaxation
of totalitarian control over the people.

Basically, village or block committees could no long kill people
simply by withholding ration coupons; a result of the free market in
food was that getting on their bad side primarily meant you had to
spend more on food.  At that time (1990 or 91) the major thing people
had to watch out for was sexual indiscretions---that was the major
hold the committees had left.

Now that I think about it, this was probably in part due to the PRC's
population control program---something that now (or soon) will leave
China with 100 million young men who will never find a wife (due to
infanticide; having a son is very important, and with a regime where
having only one child is encouraged, and two barely tolerated...).

You want to talk about social problems, or, for the fanfic minded, an
application for Jyuusenkyo....

Since then, I get the impression China is getting more repressive,
although they'll (hopefully) never match Mao or the Gang of Four;
surely they'd never march 50 million men into the Nyannichuan.

Surely....

However, in the reality of "But That Way Lies...", that would
certainly "propitiate the spirits".

BTW:

	"Hi!"  She bowed very prettily.  Nodoka found her heart warming 
  towards this girl, who reminded her of herself at that age. 

Is bowing in this sort of situation a Chinese custom?

					- Harold