Macondo in India, China

The Chinese writer Wang Anyi, describes Panhuang, a small rural town in Jiangsu province with the rivetting imagery from Garcia Marquez's fictional place of Macondo (in One Hundred Years of Solitude):

Evening after evening would seem to be filled with revelry, yet this is also a lonely place. One might think of Macondo, and the tumult in its seclusion. Modernity hovers over the town like an iridescent cloud, but its life remains unaltered.

I felt the last sentence describes very well the kind of 'development' and 'modernity' that is today shaping India as well. Between the less than a dozen cities booming with call centers, BPOs and software companies are endless number of small towns and villages that resemble Panhuang.

From "For Whom the Bells Toll", reprinted in One China Many Paths.

A previous post with another quote by Wang Anyi in the same book here.

Tags: Wang Anyi, China, India, Macondo, Globalization