Johnny Erling

In 1975, Mao was still alive when Johnny Erling arrived in the rural capital of Beijing to study. Over the four decades during which he witnessed the breathtaking transformation of the old imperial residence into a hyper-mobile global metropolis, the population nearly tripled. His astonishing stories from Beijing revolve around the newfound possibilities for individual advancement. He visits the cinema usher Zhang Yuxi, who made the belly of Beijing from his collective village, the collector Pan Yong, who opened his private gallery filled with fairy-tale imperial treasures known to only a few, and meets Liu Yang, who successfully studied in France, fell in love with Corsican cheese, and is now known as the "Fromager de Pékin." Other curious tales, such as the campaign of all Beijingers against the sparrows, illustrate the challenging environment that gave rise to the myth of the Chinese dishwasher.