China Eats Up Rolling Stone

The Chinese-language version of pop-Bible Rolling Stone sold out in its first day on China's newstands yesterday, the Times of London says. One newstand operator said:

“I’ve sold out. That’s more than 20 copies today. Maybe it’s because of the free gift, but I think it’s because people are quite interested to read this new magazine.”

The gift was a baseball cap with the magazine's logo. Most of the content was translated from the US edition, but there was also news on rock from China, Taiwan and Japan.

What do we make of Rolling Stone's popularity in Communist China? I'm no fan (now) of Rolling Stone's agenda, although I was a fervent subscriber in my youth. This is one of those cases where modernization (good for a country) comes with questions about decaying morality (bad for a country).

In China's case, anything that undermines authoritarianism is a good thing. Rolling Stone has worried a lot about authoritarianism in the US, where it does not exist. Maybe they can actually do something about it in China.

hat-tip Media Bistro
Related Tags: China, Democracy, Authoritarianism, Rolling Stone, Rock and roll