La longue marche de Gregory Lee

Until his 85th birthday it seemed quite quaint to have been born on the same August day as Deng Xiaoping. I could use it to entertain Chinese hosts or guests at official banquets. But after the events of 1989 it turned sour for me. Even if Chinese hosts continued to appreciate the coincidence, I was far from proud, and certainly no longer amused by it. This year Deng Xiaoping would have been 110 years old and in China his birth is being celebrated with an array of media productions.