Back in 1989 I, by chance, took a Russian univeristy professor that was visiting Portugal to the largest supermarket in Lisbon. As far as I rememmber, we had to buy some food to take home and cook her a meal and the supermarket was in the way.
As we waited in line to pay she asked us if she could go for another walk by herself. She said that the supermarket was like a cathedral to her. That was when it dawned on me, having been in the USSR before, the shock she was going through.
The modern Chinese relationship to foreign retail distribution operations such as Germany's Metro, France's Carrefour, the US's Walmart and Sam's Club and even Swedish IKEA could also be framed in this light.
As we waited in line to pay she asked us if she could go for another walk by herself. She said that the supermarket was like a cathedral to her. That was when it dawned on me, having been in the USSR before, the shock she was going through.