What Xue Deyu remembers most clearly about the time before economic reforms was falling ill every Lunar New Year from waiting outside in the cold to buy a coveted fish for the holiday table.
The neighbourhood committee, which then controlled many facets of daily life in their Shanghai alley, would distribute special food coupons for the holiday but people still had to queue and pay for the purchases. Hopeful customers would place objects like a brick, a basket or a cup on the ground to hold their places in the queue the night before the local food market even opened.