Modern China’s First Diplomats
When Chinese diplomats arrived in New York in 1971, they might as well have landed on another planet.The United Nations had just transferred China’s seat at the global body from Taipei to Beijing, a momentous step. Yet what first struck many of these new arrivals were the colors. On clothing, in shop fronts, and on neon signs, they saw a world that seemed physically and even morally jarring compared with the monochrome uniformity of home.