麻豆社

Alan Johnston with insight, wit and analysis from 麻豆社 correspondents around the world. In this edition, Emma Jane Kirby takes the measure of contemporary France.

Groaning under the weight of its heritage?

Few would question the importance of France's history and culture to the rest of Europe and the world. Yet today, the country can seem somewhat becalmed, somehow lacking in dynamism. Certainly its youth increasingly look elsewhere for fun or for personal advancement. There is plenty of complaint about the immobilism, nepotism and stagnation which seem to beset life in modern France.

Emma Jane Kirby has lived, worked and taught in the country for years, and draws on this experiences to ask how ready it is to accept the new and the different - in fields from education to entertainment.