As I write this, I’m sitting in a KFC having a cup of milk tea. This particular KFC -- it's one of three in Xiasha -- is situated in a huge circular shopping mall a few blocks east of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, where I teach. The mall is baby blue, very high design, with a round courtyard in the center surrounded by restaurants and cafes. There’s a Dairy Queen, a Pizza Hut, and a KFC standing alongside Chinese franchises like Hsu’s Hot Pot, The Straits Café, and "Potato," a walk-up that sells nothing but French fries. KFC is considered pretty upscale, with colorful interior decoration, and Western pop music pouring out of the sound system. College kids are eating fried chicken, drinking Cokes, and surfing their smart phones. China’s is definitely a first world economy, one
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