As China's communist party celebrates its 90th anniversary, crowds are packing into Beijing’s cultural revolution-themed restaurants, where patrons can eat their way through a tumultuous history. In this week’s NEWSWEEK, Melinda Liu reports on the booming popularity of these “Red Restaurants.” Liu paints a picture of a typical Saturday night at the Red Scene, where servers dressed like Red Army soldiers, Red Guards and peasants dance to revolutionary songs while delivering food. There is even a skit “showcasing the persecution of an evil landlord, who is being beaten and forced to wear a pointed dunce cap.” Catering to a certain “revolutionary nostalgia” the restaurants’ menus riff on the era’s hard times: “dandelion-leaf salad and raw cucumbers to symbolize the grass and bark that some poor Chinese ate,” or “‘the Chairman’s Favorite’—roast fatty pork.” The restaurants, which have been around since the 1990s, are peaking in popularity due to 90th anniversary celebrations and related attractions—including tours to sites along the Long March route which have brought in a reported 1.35 billion visitors, or a fifth of all tourism traffic. —Genevieve Walker
