I just returned home from a hot two-hour bus trip to Beijing Capital Library, where I handed back an English language history book 36 days overdue and paid 7.2 yuan in overdue fine. This amount equals 72% of the library’s card annual fee.

Every time I visit the library, I feel so good about being served by the government-funded institution because it makes me feel like a Chinese citizen being taken care of by the State. Wrong. The library is in fact financed by Beijing City rather than the State.