China wants to move ahead, but Xi Jinping is looking to the past

A song called "Tomorrow Will Be Better” became a sensation in mainland China in the 1980s, when the nation was emerging from the poverty and turmoil of Mao Zedong's rule. Its inspirational lyrics, which exhorted listeners to "look upward for the wings in the sky,” came to represent a generation that was starting to believe in a brighter future. Now people in China are listening to the song again—but for a very different reason. Videos of the song are circulating on WeChat and other communications apps, often with taglines expressing sadness about the end of that era. "The 1980s are…