Choir With Elite Pedigree Promotes Red Songs, and Red Values - NYTimes.com

Choir With Elite Pedigree Promotes Red Songs, and Red Values - NYTimes.com: The Founding Figures may be restricted to the offspring of senior party officials, but most of the singers are unpretentious, middle-class retirees from the ranks of the civil service. They wear simple overcoats and loose-fitting pants. Some reject leather dress shoes in favor of the cheap black cotton slippers that were ubiquitous during the Mao era. Others cannot afford to cover their own travel costs when they travel outside Beijing.