An elderly couple is winnowing rice in the front yard of their home in the tiny village of Dongjianggai, about 200 miles northwest of Shanghai. They’ve just watched China’s incoming leaders — including Xi Jinping, the new general secretary of the Communist Party — appear for the first time on national TV.
“We don’t know them,” the husband, Wu Beiling, says. “Xi Jinping was just unveiled. I’m not very familiar with the rest of the members.”
Wu, 66, wears a denim hat with flaps that cover his neck and ears to protect them from the sun. He says villagers have no personal feel for the country’s leaders.
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