IN SOUTHWEST CHINA, nostalgia and a “Red” revival. “The local satellite television station recently stopped broadcasting sitcoms and now shows only ‘revolutionary’ programs and news. Government workers and students have been told to spend time working in the countryside. The local propaganda department launched a ‘red Twitter’ micro-blogging site, blasting out short patriotic slogans. And in what seems like a throwback to the days of the Cultural Revolution, residents have been encouraged — or told — to read revolutionary books and poetry and to gather regularly in parks to sing old songs extolling the Communist revolution. A recent Sunday gathering, including a colorful, choreographed stage pageant, attracted an estimated 10,000 flag-waving people, many in uniforms and red caps and mostly organized by the party chiefs in their schools and factories.” Pardon me if I’m less than impressed. But if I were a Chinese leader in Beijing, I’d be a bit worried that some sort of purification movement might be springing up.

UPDATE: Several readers say that Beijing likes this, but I repeat — if it gets out of control, it could easily become a “purification movement” that would mean the end of all the lucrative deals for Party officials and their kids, and possibly those officials and their kids hanging from lampposts. When you’ve spent the last ten years profiting off of state-crony capitalism, this is dangerous stuff. Perhaps they’re pushing this now because they expect the economic bubble to burst and want people to take solace in ideology instead of wealth. Good luck with that. China’s overdue for one of its cyclical convulsions already . . .