They need Jane

Can this really be true? The Economist of 10 October insists that Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre is wildly popular with the Chinese government; apparently it was recently decreed as compulsory reading for all students in Chinese secondary schools. The Economist attributes the official popularity of the book to the nation’s falling birth rate. Having abandoned a single-child policy the Chinese government is now encouraging as much and as early marriage and child-bearing as they can manage, with less success than they had hoped. They are alleged to love Jane because of her famous declaration at the start of the final chapter, number 38: “Reader, I married him”. We all know, don’t we, that reading a directive like that has the immediate effect on any teenager of making them want to run off to the nearest registry office and tie knots? That’s why British and American schools have been careful to limit their pupils’ access to this inflammatory text. The Economist‘s final paragraph…