Last month, Robin Li, the chief executive of the search giant Baidu, set off a firestorm when he said that Chinese people were willing to trade privacy for convenience, safety and efficiency. In December, the software developer Qihoo 360 angered many internet users when a blogger discovered that the company was taking surveillance footage from restaurants and gyms in Beijing and broadcasting it wi

Kaori Masukodera, left, and Mai Chusonji of the duo Bed In, whose garish outfits and bubbly music are part of a nostalgic reappreciation of Japan’s 1980s economic boom.Credit...Ko Sasaki for The New York Times TOKYO — Kaori Masukodera remembers, barely, riding as a child with her mother, her hair teased and her lips bright red, in the family’s convertible to the beach. It was the last gasp of the