China - corruption old and new

You don't have to be a postcolonial history scholar to start having doubts about China coverage in the media. When examining some, usually negative, trend in modern Chinese life many articles frame their commentary with reference to China's Imperial past - is this really appropriate or is there a whiff of Orientalism about it ?.

A recent article in the US comments on Chinese campaigns against corruption and mentions the theory that it's incidence is rising because of a desire among rich officials to return to the Imperial tradition of the 'Golden Canary', as trophy mistresses were known, more from the LA Times... When such matters as official corruption in a developed country are mentioned , like France, no such trappings of the Ancien Regime are felt worth listing with such regularity more from the Daily Telegraph...

The constant references to the ancient past do seem to give the impression that corruption is just an endemic feature of 'the Chinese', whereas in the French article more rational arguments are put forward as to why corruption , even in a democracy with supposedly strict oversight of officials, is still a problem (i.e. that the population don't care enough about it). The Chinese sociologist, Liu Dalin, qouted directly in the LA Times article, didn't need to refer to the mores of the Qin Dynasty when he talked about China as a "commodity economy" - "Work, technology, love, beauty, power — it's all tradable." Sound familiar ?.