In the Red
"We like to collect his picture." So here it is! Money, cash, dosh or RMB, as we say in the Middle Kingdom. RMB stands for “reminbi”, which in Mandarin means “the people’s money”. Here, on my desk is a 100RMB banknote, proudly displaying the portrait of Chairman Mao. (It is mostly printed in red ink, just in case there are any ghosts around.) Before coming to China, I heard lots of stories about all of the counterfeit 100RMB notes that are supposed to be in circulation here. You could tell if they were genuine because the red ink would either stay on or come off. I cannot remember which! Anyway, so far I have not come across any fakes. Well, maybe I did have some, but I did not know that they were fakes and so I must have given them to someone else. Of course lots of people in the West have heard of The Little Red Book , aka The Thoughts of Chairman Mao . But why do they still have Mao on their money? Yes, yes, in theory China is meant to be a Communist country, b...