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893 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 6, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section NJ; Column 0; New Jersey Weekly Desk; CALENDAR; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 2554 words
COMEDY

NEW BRUNSWICK The Stress Factory Comedy Club ''Something to Laugh About!'' A comedy show and benefit presented by Comedy Central with Pete Dominick, host. Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. $45; buffet dinner included. The Stress Factory Comedy Club, 90 Church Street. [phone]; www.stressfactory.com.

FILM

JERSEY CITY Landmark Loew's Jersey Theater ''All About Eve,'' screening with Celeste Holm, host. April 12 at 7:30 p.m. $4 and $6. Landmark Loew's Jersey Theater, 54 Journal Square. [phone]; www.loewsjersey.org.

SPRING VALLEY Finkelstein Memorial Library International Film Festival: ''The Italian'' by Andrei Kravchuk. April 15 at 7 p.m. $1 and $3. Finkelstein Memorial Library, 24 Chestnut Street. [phone]; www.finkelsteinlibrary.org.

TENAFLY JCC on the Palisades ''Shirat Hasirena,'' by Irit Linur; followed by a discussion with Shimon Azulai. April 12 at 8:45 p.m. $10 and $12. JCC on the Palisades, 411 East Clinton Avenue. [phone].

FOR CHILDREN

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS First Avenue Playhouse ''Puss in Boots,'' musical presented by the Paper Moon Puppet Theater. $9. Through June 2. First Avenue Playhouse, 123 First Avenue. [phone]; www.firstavenueplayhouse.com.

CAPE MAY Emlen Physick Estate ''Cape May Family Treasure Hunt,'' self-guided tours; continuing. $5. Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington Street. [phone]; www.capemaymac.org.

LINCROFT Monmouth Museum ''Teddy Bear Tea,'' a tea party for stuffed animals and their owners featuring entertainment by Flavian the Magician, followed by a teddy bear parade. Ages 3 to 8. April 6, 2 to 4 p.m. $20 to $35. Monmouth Museum, Brookdale Community College, Newman Springs Road. [phone]; www.monmouthmuseum.org.

MADISON Museum of Early Trades and Crafts Family Fun Day. Celebrate National Poetry Month by creating sidewalk poetry on the museum's walkways. April 12, 1 to 3 p.m. $3 and $5. Museum of Early Trades and Crafts, 9 Main Street. [phone]; www.rosenet.org/metc.

MOUNTAINSIDE Echo Lake Park Kids Fishing Derby, sponsored by the Newark Bait and Fly Casting Club, featuring activities and workshops. Ages 16 and under. Saturdays, April 12 through May 3 at 8 a.m. Free for children; $7 for adults; registration required. Echo Lake Park, Springfield Avenue. [phone].

SANDY HOOK Sandy Hook Visitor's Center Junior Ranger. Walk a beach trail with a ranger and learn about the environment and ranger duties. April 16 at 4 p.m. Free; registration required. Sandy Hook Visitor's Center, Hartshorne Drive. [phone].

TOMS RIVER Ocean County YMCA Healthy Kids Day, activities include dance, cardio kickboxing, swimming, scavenger hunts and more. April 12, 2 to 4 p.m. Free. Ocean County YMCA, 1088 West Whitty Road. [phone]; www.ocymca.org.

MUSIC AND DANCE

ALLENDALE Allendale Community for Mature Living Alexis Lerner, violinist, will perform works by Bach, Beriot and Kreisler, with piano accompaniment. April 6 at 2 p.m. Free. Allendale Community for Mature Living, 85 Harreton Road. [phone].

FORT LEE Fort Lee Library The Bloomfield Mandolin Orchestra performs works by Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn. April 12 at 3 p.m. Free. Fort Lee Library, 320 Main Street. [phone]; http://fortlee.bccls.org.

GLEN RIDGE Glen Ridge Congregational Church ''Psalms in Music.'' The Glen Ridge Choral Society and Orchestra perform three psalm settings by Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn. April 6 at 3 p.m. $8 to $18. Glen Ridge Congregational Church, 195 Ridgewood Avenue. [phone].

MAPLEWOOD Burgdorff Cultural Center Matthew Bengtson, pianist, will join members of the Goodnight Consort for a program of chamber music by Brahms, Haydn and Messiaen. April 6 at 3 p.m. $5 and $10. Burgdorff Cultural Center, 10 Durand Road. [phone].

MOORESTOWN Perkins Center for the Arts The Burning Bush, Jewish folk music. April 6 at 4 p.m. $8 to $12. Perkins Center for the Arts, 395 Kings Highway. [phone]; www.perkinscenter.org.

MORRIS TOWNSHIP Bickford Theater ''Dancing Through the Ages,'' a celebration of dance performed by a large cast of professional and student dancers. April 12 at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. $7, $8 and $9. Bickford Theater, 6 Normandy Heights Road. [phone]; www.morrismuseum.org.

MORRIS TOWNSHIPMorris Museum Wyeth Jazz Showcase, a tribute performance in memory of Joseph (King) Oliver, Louis Armstrong's mentor. Tuesday at 8 p.m. $13 and $15. Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road. [phone]; www.morrismuseum.org.

MORRISTOWN Morristown United Methodist Church ''Three R's in Music: Reger, Rutter and Ralph,'' with performance by Chancel Chorus. April 19 at 7:30 p.m. $12 and $15. Morristown United Methodist Church, 50 Park Place. [phone].

MORRISTOWN The Community Theater at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby with Kentucky Thunder, bluegrass and mountain music. April 12 at 8 p.m. $47 to $67. The Community Theater at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Street. [phone]; www.mayoarts.org.

NEW BRUNSWICK First Reformed Church of New Brunswick Tom Boulton, trumpetist, will perform classical pieces from a variety of periods and genres. Wednesday, 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. Free. First Rerformed Church of New Brunswick, 9 Bayard Street. [phone].

NEWARKNew Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark Boys Chorus, featuring classical, pop, folk, gospel and jazz music. April 13 at 2 p.m. $12 and $22. David Rudder and Lataye, music from the island of Trinidad. April 19 at 7:30 p.m. $39. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street. [phone]; www.njpac.org.

PRINCETON Johnson Education Center The Princeton Singers, chamber music. April 12 at 8 p.m. $10 and $15. Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place.

RED BANK First Presbyterian Church ETA3, classical trio, will perform chamber music. April 6 at 7 p.m. Free. First Presbyterian Church, 255 Harding Road. [phone].

RIDGEWOOD West Side Presbyterian Church Thomas Hampson, baritone, will perform works by Barber and Copland. April 6 at 4 p.m. $15 to $30. West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe Street. (201) 652- 1966.

WEST ORANGE The Manor ''Here's to the Ladies! A Salute to the Great Ladies in Song,'' featuring Marieann Meringolo, vocalist. April 17 at 9 p.m. $35 and $74. The Manor, 111 Prospect Avenue. [phone].

OUTDOORS

SANDY HOOK Sandy Hook Visitor's Center Spring Bird Walk, a bird walk in search of arriving spring migrants; bring binoculars. April 12 at 9 a.m. Free; registration required. Sandy Hook Visitor's Center, Hartshorne Drive. [phone].

SPOKEN WORD

JERSEY CITY New Jersey City University Lecture and discussion on time travel with Ronald Mallett, a professor of physics at the University of Connecticut. April 14 at 3 p.m. Free. New Jersey City University, 2039 Kennedy Boulevard. [phone].

LINCROFT Monmouth Museum Lecture and discussion with Gregory Olsen, scientist, space traveler and entrepreneur. Friday at 6 p.m. $12 to $20. Monmouth Museum, Brookdale Community College, Newman Springs Road. [phone]; www.monmouthmuseum.org.

NEWARK New Jersey Performing Arts Center ''Hip Hop: Out, Loud and Proud II,'' spoken word performance. April 12 at 8 p.m. $16. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street. [phone]; www.njpac.org.

TENAFLY JCC on the Palisades ''Great Zionist Thinkers,'' a lecture with Rabbi Reuven Kimelman. Through Wednesday. Free. ''The Mother-in-Law Dilemma: Keeping in Touch, Staying Out of Trouble,'' a discussion with Barbara Conlon, Psy.D. and Beth Krugman, Ph.D. Monday at 7:30 p.m. $8 and $10. JCC on the Palisades, 411 EastClinton Avenue. [phone].

WAYNE Wayne Public Library ''The Unknown Palisades,'' lecture and discussion with Eric Nelson. Wednesday at noon. Free. ''In With the New and Out With the Old,'' a lecture and discussion with Sheila Dempsey, a professional organizing consultant. April 13, 1:30 to 3 p.m. Free. Wayne Public Library, 461 Valley Road. [phone].

THEATER

CRANFORD Union County College''Fully Committed,'' comedy by Becky Mode. Through April 13. $10 to $22. Union County College, 1033 Springfield Avenue. [phone].

LONG BRANCH New Jersey Repertory Company ''Engaging Shaw,'' a romantic comedy by John Morogiello with excerpts from George Bernard Shaw's work. Through April 13. $30 to $40. New Jersey Repertory Company, 179 Broadway. [phone]; www.njrep.org.

MADISON F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theater ''Nevermore: The Final Nightmares of Edgar Allan Poe,'' performed by Shakespeare LIVE. April 16 and 19. $12. F. M. Kirby Shakespeare Theater, Drew University, 36 Madison Avenue. [phone]; www.njshakespeare.org.

MAPLEWOOD Burgdorff Cultural Center ''The Housekeeper,'' a comedy by James Prideaux, presented by the What Exit? Theater Company. Through April 13. $15 to $25. Burgdorff Cultural Center, 10 Durand Road. [phone]. www.whatexittheatre.com

MARGATE Margate Community Church ''The Dining Room,'' comedy by A. R. Gurney. Friday through April 13. $12 and $15. Margate Community Church, 8900 Ventnor Boulevard. [phone].

MILLBURNPaper Mill Playhouse''Steel Magnolias,'' drama by Robert Harling. April 6. $29.25 to $88.25. Paper Mill Playhouse, 3 Brookside Drive. [phone]; www.papermill.org.

MONTCLAIR Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University ''SubUrbia,'' drama by Eric Bogosian. Thursday through April 13. $15. Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University, College Avenue and Red Hawk Road. [phone]; www.montclair.edu/kasser.

MONTCLAIR Luna Stage ''The Man in Room 306,'' one-man play about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Through May 4. $16 to $30. Luna Stage, 695 Bloomfield Avenue. [phone]. www.lunastage.org.

MORRIS TOWNSHIP Bickford Theater ''Rounding Third,'' comedy by Richard Dresser. Through April 20. $15 to $30. Bickford Theater, 6 Normandy Heights Road. [phone]; www.morrismuseum.org.

ORADELL Bergen County Players ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' drama by Dale Wasserman. Through April 13. $5 to $21. ''Our Enchanted Evenings,'' Broadway-style cabaret and dance, directed by Jacqueline McElroy-Poquette. April 12 and 13. $10. Bergen County Players, 298 Kinderkamack Road. [phone]; bcplayers.org.

PERRYVILLE Hunterdon Hills Playhouse ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers,'' comedy by Neil Simon; show includes entrees, and unlimited dessert buffet. Through June 24. $57.50 to $69.50. Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, 88 Route 173 West. [phone]; www.hhplayhouse.com.

WEST WINDSOR Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College''Singin' in the Rain,'' musical adapted from the classic Gene Kelly film. April 6. $10 to $16. ''Macbeth,'' by William Shakespeare, presented by the MC Student Company. April 18 through 27. $10 and $12. Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road. [phone]; www.kelseyatmccc.org.

MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

CAMDEN Camden County Historical Society ''Lullaby for Dreamland: The Dreamland Cafe in Lawnside,'' historic photographs of jazz clubs and other night life in Lawnside, the first incorporated African-American town north of the Mason-Dixon line. Through Thursday. Free. Hours: Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Camden County Historical Society, 1900 Park Boulevard. [phone]; www.cchsnj.com.

CAPE MAY Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts ''Proudly We Serve: Our African-American Military Experience, From the Civil War Forward,'' exhibition that highlights the contributions of African-Americans in photographs and artifacts. Through April 13. $1 and $2; free with a tour: $5 and $10. Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, 1048 Washington Street. [phone]; www.capemaymac.org.

CRANFORD Union County College ''Amelia's World: Animal Affinity,'' photographs by Robin Schwartz. Through April 17. Free. Union County College, 1033 Springfield Avenue. [phone].

JERSEY CITY Liberty Science Center ''Race: Are We So Different?'' Exhibition bringing together the experience of living with race, its history as an idea and the role of science in that history. Through April 27. $11.50 and $15.75. Liberty Science Center, Liberty State Park, 222 Jersey City Boulevard. [phone]; www.lsc.org.

JERSEY CITY New Jersey City University, Visual Arts Gallery ''Mother Cuts: Experiments in Film and Video,'' exhibition of audiovisual works by four artists. Through April 11. Free. ''Sustaining Vision: A Tribute to Arlene Raven,'' multimedia exhibition by eight women. Through April 16. Free. New Jersey City University, Visual Arts Gallery, 100 Culver Avenue. [phone].

LINCROFT Monmouth Museum ''New Jersey Emerging Artists Series: Handmade Paper,'' works by Marie Sturken. Through April 20. ''Beyond Visions of Planetary Landscapes,'' solar system images by the artist Michael Benson. Through May 4. Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Monmouth Museum, Brookdale Community College, Newman Springs Road. [phone]; www.monmouthmuseum.org.

MORRIS TOWNSHIP Morris Museum ''Stepping Out in Style: Outerwear of the Last 150 Years.'' Through May 4. $6 to $8; free on Thursdays, from 5 to 8 p.m. Hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays to 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road. [phone]; www.morrismuseum.org.

MORRISTOWN Simon Gallery Exhibition of acrylic paintings by Matthew Craig. Through April 19. Hours: Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Simon Gallery, 48 Bank Street. [phone].

NEW BRUNSWICK Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation ''Magyar Grafika: Hungarian Posters, Advertising and Ephemera,'' exhibition featuring 75 posters from the 1900s. Through Sept. 14. $5. Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation, 300 Somerset Street. [phone].

NEWARK City Without Walls ''1800Frames/Take 4: The Video State of the Global Union,'' one-minute video exhibition. April 12 through May 30. Free. Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. City Without Walls, 6 Crawford Street. [phone]; www.cwow.org.

NEWARKNewark Museum ''Glass Beads of Ghana,'' exhibition of glass beads made with varied techniques and materials. Through June 15. ''O, Write My Name: American Portraits -- Harlem Heroes,'' exhibition of 50 portraits by Carl Van Vechten between 1930 and 1960. Through June 15. ''Small but Sublime: Intimate Views by Durand, Bierstadt and Inness.'' Wednesday through February 2009. ''Women's Tales: Four Leading Israeli Jewelers,'' exhibition of contemporary jewelry. Through June 25. $3 to $7; members, free. Hours: Wednesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; October through June, Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; July through September, Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Newark Museum, 49 Washington Street. [phone]; www.newarkmuseum.org. PATERSON Passaic County Community College ''Mexican Revolutionary Prints,'' from the collection of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Through April 30. Free. Passaic County Community College, 1 College Boulevard. [phone].
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: MOVIE INDUSTRY (71%); FILM (71%); ARTS FESTIVALS & EXHIBITIONS (71%); COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES (69%); FESTIVALS (69%); SPORT FISHING (64%); THEATER (56%)
ORGANIZATION: RUTGERS UNIVERSITY (84%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW ORLEANS, LA, USA (79%) NEW JERSEY, USA (91%); LOUISIANA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (92%)
LOAD-DATE: April 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: WEST WINDSOR: David Abeles, left, and Paul Wyatt in ''Dr. Dolittle,'' a new musical presented by Theaterworks/USA at the Kelsey Theater on April 19 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets are $8 and $10. West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road. [phone]

www.kelseyatmccc.org

NEWARK: ''Julius Caesar,'' by William Shakespeare, will be presented by the Aquila Theater Company at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on April 12 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 and $22. 1 Center Street. [phone]

www.njpac.org. (PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD TERMINE)

NEW BRUNSWICK: ''Sea Creature,'' by Anita Dube (2000) is part of the exhibition ''Tiger by the Tail! Women Artists of India Transforming Culture -- Part 1,'' featuring contemporary Indian art, through July 31 at Rutgers University. Admission is free. Douglass Library, 8 Chapel Drive. [phone]

www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/exhibits/dana--womens.shtml.MORRISTOWN: Preservation Hall Jazz Band will play New Orleans-style jazz at the Community Theater at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $37 to $47. 100 South Street. [phone]

www.mayoarts.org.
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The New York Times
April 6, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Paid Notice: Deaths SOLOMON, ADAM
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Classified; Pg. 37
LENGTH: 215 words
SOLOMON--Adam, was a wonderful and extraordinary human being who deserved to enjoy all that he had. To Vicki, Peter, James, Tracy and everyone who knew him, we extend our most profound sympathies. Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro SOLOMON--Adam, suddenly on April 3, 2008. Beloved husband of Vicki Rosen Solomon. Devoted father of Peter and James, and Jessica and David Rosen. Brother of Tracy Jake Solomon. Son of the late Constance Kaufman Solomon and Anthony M. Solomon. A true renaissance man, philenthropical entrepreneur, and unique friend to many. Services private. A future memorial service time and place to be announced. ''The Riverside'' 212-362-6600. SOLOMON--Adam. With great sorrow and shock, the Board of Directors, Leadership Council and staff of Tanenbaum remember our founding Board member, Adam Solomon. Adam inspired us with his strategic brilliance and loyal commitment to making an impact in overcoming religious hatred and intolerance. But even more, he was a dear and treasured friend, whose loss is felt keenly by us all. We send heartfelt condolences to Adam's wife Vicki, his sons James and Peter, and his sister Tracy. Too young, too soon. Georgette F. Bennett, President Joyce S. Dubensky, Executive Vice President Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
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The New York Times
April 6, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Building Wonderland
BYLINE: By BROOK LARMER.

Brook Larmer is a former Shanghai bureau chief for Newsweek and the author of ''Operation Yao Ming.'' He lives in Bangkok.

SECTION: Section MM; Column 0; Key; Pg. 82
LENGTH: 5183 words
ON A COLD JANUARY AFTERNOON, several hundred Chinese converged on a bookstore in a Beijing shopping center called the Creative Zone. As U2's anthem ''I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'' swelled in the background, their eyes were drawn to a video montage of a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard projected onto a wall behind a raised stage. As the music faded, the man himself appeared, dressed in jeans and a black leather jacket, and the audience fell into a reverential hush.

This was Wang Shi. A 58-year-old tycoon-adventurer in the mold of Sir Richard Branson, he had come to promote his second book, in which he retraces the journey of a seventh-century Buddhist monk across China, Central Asia and India. But the standing-room-only audience, most of them migrants and professionals half his age, seemed more interested in being enlightened about the secrets of his financial success than in hearing about his travels.

Wang is the founder and chairman of China Vanke Company, the largest housing developer in China and soon, perhaps, the world. Though virtually unknown in the West, the former People's Liberation Army soldier has become a hero in his homeland. His story -- a poor migrant leaps to the top of China's most transformative industry -- encapsulates not only the rise of his ambitious nation but also the aspirations of China's growing middle class. As Wang talked to the crowd about building his giant real estate company, the audience leaned forward expectantly. ''You have to let go, to make a choice,'' he told them. ''Find one important thing, concentrate on it and you'll reach your goal.''

His advice was the cliche of countless self-improvement and business books, but it didn't seem to matter. Wang is in the business of selling dreams. In the West, building gated communities and apartment compounds carries all the romance of a cement truck. But in China, the housing industry conveys the promise of things that, until recently, were unthinkable for ordinary Chinese: the freedom to choose where and how to live, the chance to accumulate wealth, the right to have a voice in community affairs. For the strivers in the audience at the shopping center, Wang embodied those possibilities.

It's easy to forget, amid the current building frenzy in China, that private residential property didn't even exist in the People's Republic a quarter century ago. From the time Chairman Mao Zedong took power in 1949 until the early 1980s, all property in China was owned, developed and allocated by the state. Communist bureaucrats dictated where every person worked and lived, sometimes assigning family members to different cities and forbidding travel outside the ''work unit'' without explicit authorization. In cities like Beijing and Shanghai, mansions once owned by capitalist bosses -- the pre-revolutionary equivalents of Wang Shi today -- were confiscated and subdivided. Most urban families ended up crammed into a single room, surrendering privacy to neighbors with whom they shared communal bathrooms and kitchens.

The seeds of China's housing revolution were sown in the 1980s, when Mao's pragmatic successor, Deng Xiaoping, began granting workers partial or full ownership rights to the apartments they already lived in. It wasn't long before state-owned enterprises were allowed to sell private apartments to their employees at highly subsidized rates. ''Although no one had access to mortgages, the price was so cheap that people happily threw all their savings into the new apartment,'' says Jonathan Unger, a professor of Chinese studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. In the 1990s, as incomes rose and mortgages became available, these public employees were joined in the nascent middle class by people working in private enterprise. After decades of enduring cramped living conditions, Chinese suddenly had the chance to move into new places of their own, a shift that Unger calls ''the great liberation.''

TODAY, BARELY A GENERATION later, China has the most dynamic housing market in the world. According to the research firm Euromonitor International, the country added 5.5 million new housing units in 2007, nearly four times what the United States built and more than one-quarter of all new housing stock in the world. (Other analysts estimate China built even more units.) The size and value of the average Chinese home still lag far behind its U.S. equivalent. But the pace of change is so fast that China is hurtling through two periods of history at once -- the industrialization of the late 19th century and the suburbanization of the mid-20th century. When I asked Wang Shi if Vanke would consider projects outside of China, he laughed. ''We don't have to go global,'' he said. ''We're sitting on what will be the biggest market in the world.''

For all its exuberance, China's real estate industry does not adhere to the usual laws of the free market. Housing is controlled, like much of the economy, by a murky collusion between state and private sectors. ''The privatization of housing is a seismic change,'' Ken DeWoskin, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan and a senior adviser to Deloitte, wrote in an e-mail message. ''At the same time, there is a strong residual sentiment that housing is a public good, so party and government officials exert pressure on developers'' on everything from unit size to pricing. All land, moreover, remains in the hands of the state, which explains why many developers came out of government entities -- and why some of the country's juiciest corruption scandals revolve around real estate. Vanke is publicly held, but its biggest shareholder is a conglomerate owned by the central government. Even with Wang's vaunted entrepreneurial vision, the fate of his company hinges not only on the market but also on the mandarins in Beijing.

Home building in China, as elsewhere, is largely a local business. More than 20,000 developers are registered in Shanghai alone, which is why Vanke, despite its size, controls just 2 percent of the Chinese market. Still, it is one of the few companies with a national footprint, with developments in more than 30 cities and a strong brand identity. Wang Shi, who relinquished Vanke's day-to-day operations to his management team in 1999 but retains his role as chairman, likes to credit its stances against corruption and speculation and its pursuit of social responsibility and environmental protection. But Vanke's real edge is its ability to anticipate the needs of China's burgeoning middle class.

''Live Your Dreams,'' exhorted a recent Vanke ad campaign. And indeed, the company's developments -- from 600-square-foot starter apartments in a place called Wonderland to luxurious glass-box duplexes overlooking the South China Sea (where Wang lives) -- are meant to be seen not simply as places to live but as rungs on the ladder to higher status, security and style. No longer do Chinese families live in the same place for years as wards of the state. Now, as in the West, they are stakeholders, buying into the market and moving up as fast as they can. And if Wang has his way, every step will be with Vanke.

So far, the strategy has worked. Vanke's revenues, now $5 billion, have jumped an astonishing 2,000 percent since the year 2000. Its pace of housing construction has tripled in the last three years. Alone among China's publicly listed companies, Vanke has enjoyed 17 years of uninterrupted profits. For home buyers, it has been a thrilling ride, too. ''Property is the biggest wealth generator in China by far,'' says James McGregor, a Beijing-based business consultant and the author of ''One Billion Customers.'' But with housing prices careering upward by double digits last year, this is a precarious moment for both developers and homeowners. ''Nobody knows when the party will end,'' McGregor says, ''and whether it will end badly.''

Despite fears of a property correction, Wang Shi says he remains sanguine about the future. Urban incomes are rising more than 12 percent a year, and Wang envisions the entire eastern seaboard -- Vanke's base -- becoming the largest urban area on earth. ''We may have seen miracles,'' he says, ''but the grandeur of history has only just begun.''

IN JANUARY, I traveled to Shenzhen, where I met Wang Shi in his office in Vanke's glass-encased headquarters. In 2005, at age 54, Wang became the oldest person (and tied for the sixth overall) to scale the highest peaks on seven continents and to trek to the two poles -- a feat known as the 7 + 2. His office is a shrine of sorts to the image of Wang Shi, the adventurer. A pair of well-worn hiking boots lay near the door, tongues hanging out as if they, not their owner, were exhausted from their just-completed trek up one of the tallest peaks in southwestern China. Against the wall leaned a black duffle bag stuffed with Wang's snowboard. A side table was covered with rocks and fossils collected on mountains all over the world, from Kilimanjaro to Aconcagua, and above them was a photo of Mount Everest, its summit wreathed in golden clouds.

As we sat at his desk, piled high with papers, Wang Shi recounted his life story, one known to many Chinese from his best-selling 2005 autobiography. Wang was born in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China in 1951, just over a year after Mao stormed to power. In his telling, he got his self-discipline from his father, a military general and a veteran of Mao's Long March who later repaired boilers for the railway administration. His mother, a member of the Xibo minority, a nomadic group, gave him his love of adventure.

In 1966, at age 15, Wang joined the Red Guards, who were carrying out the Cultural Revolution. It was a period of chaos, when Mao's every dictate became the basis for persecution and destruction. But Wang, who was protected by his father's loyal Communist background, plays down the violent means the Red Guards sometimes employed, preferring to emphasize the era's thrilling sense of freedom. Classes were suspended, and as Red Guards were allowed to ride trains free, he traveled all over the country for the first time. Even when the free rides ended, Wang remembers hopping freight trains with his buddies, the steam from the engines turning their faces black.

This period of youthful exuberance came to an end when, at age 17, Wang became a soldier. The army, he told me, helped him discover a distaste for authority and an ability to endure hardship, what Chinese call chi ku, ''eating bitterness.'' ''I'm an independent thinker, and being a soldier means taking orders,'' Wang said, recalling the frigid winters in China's far west. ''When I left, I felt now I can finally live my life.''

To make up for his lost schooling, Wang enrolled in the Railroad College of Lanzhou, a backwater along the Yellow River in western China. Bored with his studies -- he majored in drainage -- he began an intensive course of self-education. ''Our whole thought system was still a Communist worldview,'' he said. ''I started to question this system in college.'' His list of intellectual mentors would have mortified his father, not to mention the Maoist authorities. Wang listened secretly to Voice of America on shortwave radio. He devoured the heroic tales of Hemingway and Dickens, getting books from friends whose families had hidden them during the Cultural Revolution. He also became an obsessive student of Max Weber's theories of capitalism. ''China was not the place for the individualist,'' he said, ''and I felt rather oppressed.''

The socialist grip would loosen first in Shenzhen. China's earliest laboratory for capitalism attracted dreamers from all over the country, and Wang was an early arrival. Moving to Shenzhen in 1983, he planned to stay two years or so, long enough to save up the money he needed to go to the United States. He never left. Twenty-five years later the onetime fishing village is a metropolis of 10 million people, and Wang heads a company with a market value of more than $22 billion.

Like many businesses in China, Vanke was born in the cradle of the state. Its predecessor, which Wang formed in 1984 as a subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise, traded home appliances and electronics. Four years later, Wang turned the business into a public shareholding company, renaming it Vanke. The company dabbled in many businesses, from fertilizer and food processing to the media and real estate development.

There was one bump in the road Wang doesn't like to talk about. In the spring of 1989, as protesters filled Tiananmen Square, the 38-year-old entrepreneur reportedly led his employees into the streets of Shenzhen in a solidarity march. In separate interviews with Time magazine and The Washington Post several years later, Wang spoke about how the act landed him on the government blacklist and forced him out of work for a year. ''I did something wrong,'' he told Time in 1997. ''As a chairman of the board I was a symbol, not just an individual. So I should have stepped down before I protested.'' Today Wang not only disavows the act; he denies through a spokeswoman that it ever happened.

Exactly how Wang's reputation was rehabilitated is unclear. But in the wake of Tiananmen, China's rulers mapped out an unwritten social contract that binds the country to this day: We'll help you get rich, so long as you behave like good citizens and leave the politics to us. By early 1991, Vanke was a model corporate citizen honored as the second company listed on the newly created Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Rapid expansion followed until a market downturn in the mid-1990s forced the company to jettison all but one business: housing development. ''It took us nine years to fully recover,'' Wang says.

By that time, though, all the pieces were in place for a housing revolution.

ONE OF VANKE'S developments is the 4,000-unit Dream Town, which sits in a gritty industrial suburb of Shenzhen. After negotiating my way past the guards at the main entrance, I found myself in a world of Spanish-style colonial architecture that seemed lifted straight from Santa Monica. A red-brick road curves through Dream Town, and I walked along it, a pleasant shopping arcade on my left, a lake stocked with carp on my right. A canopy of palm trees allowed just the right amount of dappled sunlight to reach the sidewalk, where families were taking a Sunday stroll.

I met Ken Kuai and Annie Yu wandering down to the lake with their 2-year-old daughter, Angel, on one of their rare days off. Both parents had come from towns in China's interior in 2001 to work in Shenzhen's high-tech industry. Though proud to own a place in Dream Town, the couple work such long hours during the week that they have little time to enjoy their oasis. But on the day I met them, the three were walking hand in hand, the perfect model of the modern middle-class family: Angel in her red pinafore, Kuai in black pants and a button-down shirt, Yu with a tassled clutch and a white shirt emblazoned with the English words ''New Image of Independent Lady.''

Kuai and his family are part of the tidal wave of internal migration that is fueling China's economy. Over the past 30 years, a population the size of the United States -- some 300 million people -- has shifted from China's poor rural regions to its more prosperous urban areas. Many come as construction workers to build the homes of the elite, without any hope of living there. Others, like Kuai, gain a foothold on the middle class. Wang Shi, an early migrant himself, recognizes their energy as the engine of China's growth. When migrants arrive, ''their bare hands and wisdom may be their only property,'' he wrote Vanke shareholders in 2007. ''But someday, they will become masters of the city.''

The term ''middle class'' is still taboo in official circles, where the idea that Mao abolished all class distinctions is reflexively honored. The government prefers to talk about the 300 million people who have been lifted out of poverty, according to the World Bank. The news media are fascinated by the country's 106 billionaires, up from zero in 2002 and second only to the United States. But the people in between -- like Kuai and Yu -- are the force that is truly transforming China. Twenty-five years ago, there was no Chinese middle class; a generation later, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, about 250 million people have assets of more than 150,000 yuan (about $21,000) -- the threshold considered ''middle stratum.'' That amount might qualify an American family for food stamps, but in China, where goods and services are cheaper, it is enough to put families in the property market.

The sense of security that attaches to property -- and the Chinese compulsion to own something tangible -- has driven homeownership rates in urban China to nearly 50 percent, up from zero when Vanke started. It is now a given in Shanghai, for example, that a man must own property if he hopes to attract a bride. Even with a downturn looming, no other investment seems quite so worthy. ''If you own property, it's status,'' says McGregor, the consultant. ''Who were the wealthiest people in China before the revolution? The landlords. Mao may have killed them all, but now everybody wants to be a landlord.''

The most coveted property is inside gated communities. Though these may look like American transplants, China has a long tradition of walled compounds going back to the ancient capital Xi'an and Beijing's Forbidden City. ''China is so big and crowded that separating yourself from the unwashed masses has always been a sign that you've made it,'' says Stanley Rosen, a China specialist and professor of political science at the University of Southern California. In Dream Town, three security gates separate Kuai and Yu's apartment from the chaotic streets outside. ''This is important to us,'' Kuai says. ''It makes this a good, safe environment to raise a child.''

The apartment in Dream Town is the first that Kuai and Yu have ever owned. When they first met in Shenzhen seven years ago, the two young migrants were both living in dormitories provided by their employer, an electronics company. In 2002, together with another couple, they moved into an 800-square-foot apartment in a Vanke development called Wonderland, splitting the $250 rent. Built in 1999, Wonderland is a dense grid of low-rise town houses surrounding a leafy town square. It is a popular place for first-time home buyers, with the cheapest apartments now reselling for about $50,000.

When Yu became pregnant in 2005, Vanke had just begun marketing Dream Town, a more upscale development nearby, at a discount for Wonderland residents. The crush of buyers was so large that Kuai had to wait in line to sign a contract on a 1,000-square-foot apartment. Some of his neighbors, with their aversion to debt, paid the full amount in cash. Kuai put down 80 percent of the $83,000 sale price and took out a 20-year mortgage for the rest. From their combined income of $2,800 a month, he and his wife now set aside about $420 in mortgage payments each month -- not much more than the cost of their daughter's day-care program inside Dream Town.

Sitting on the steps by the lake, Angel sprinkled bread crumbs on the water's surface, squealing with delight when the carp thrashed about in a feeding frenzy. Looking on, Kuai and Yu said they were content with life in Dream Town. But like many members of China's middle class, they can't stop thinking about their next step up. Now that Yu's parents have moved in to help take care of Angel, they could use another bedroom. Besides, Kuai has learned that their apartment has nearly doubled in value. Whenever they decide to jump, Vanke will have just the property to usher them to the next echelon.

WHEN I SAW Wang Shi on another occasion at a hotel in Shanghai, he was in full pitch mode, eager to tell me a story about the scourge of corruption that has given other Chinese tycoons a bad rap. At a business forum several years ago in Yunnan Province, Wang told me, he gave a speech to several hundred executives about how Vanke had prospered without paying a single bribe. ''The audience was dead silent,'' he said. When the forum's next speaker cheerfully admitted to paying bribes, arguing that business in China was impossible without them, the crowd erupted in applause.

The executives' skepticism about Wang was understandable. Business in China is riddled with corruption, and real estate is especially prone to abuse. All land, after all, is owned by the state, and cozying up to officials is the easiest -- at times the only -- way for developers to get their hands on land. Wang is alone among Chinese property moguls in claiming that his company has no ''original sin.'' Twenty years ago, Vanke conducted some of its business in a ''gray'' zone, he says. But that ended when Vanke went public in 1988 and adopted ''no bribery'' as one of its core principles.

It's hard to know whether Vanke is really as spotless as Wang claims. (''If he's found a way to do property deals without bribery,'' jokes McGregor, the business consultant, ''then he should go teach at the M.B.A. schools, because that ability is worth spreading.'') Nevertheless, real estate analysts say the company has a greater level of transparency than many Chinese developers. ''Vanke is an ethical company that sticks to its principles,'' says Kenny Tse, the managing director of China real estate for Aetos Capital, a private equity fund. ''It wants to be a role model for the industry.'' And that is precisely the point. Behind Wang's idealism lies a bedrock of pragmatism, for he has been able to turn his company's Western-style ethics into yet another marketing tool, a vital part of Vanke's aspirational brand.

A company with a reputation for honest dealing has natural appeal for China's middle class. As housing prices in China have soared, the bloated fortunes of most developers have turned from objects of admiration into sources of resentment. Last year, 44 of the 100 wealthiest Chinese individuals -- all billionaires -- were property moguls, according to an annual list compiled by the research firm Hurun. In a survey conducted last fall by China Youth Daily and Sina.com, more than two-thirds of the respondents judged tycoons to have inferior characters, illegally obtained riches and little sense of social responsibility. One of the few magnates to earn their approval was Wang Shi.

Wang's name doesn't appear on any rich lists, and neither his wife nor his 26-year-old daughter works for Vanke. ''I didn't want a dynasty,'' he says. He has not nearly the publicly stated wealth of other property moguls, but even so, the migrant who arrived in Shenzhen with empty pockets now owns Vanke stock worth more than $3 million. His $980,000 salary is 70 times the average salary of Vanke's 16,500 employees. In his one brush with scandal, his wife reportedly faced insider-trading accusations last summer on a Vanke stock sale that netted a $44,000 profit. Wang insisted it was an agent's ''mistake,'' not insider trading, and quickly paid back the company. No charges were filed.

Despite his wealth, Wang sells himself as a champion of the middle class -- and an enemy of speculation. Any visitor to the outskirts of Shanghai or Shenzhen can see the effects of hot money: rows of villas or apartment buildings, paid for in cash, sitting empty as absentee owners ride the price surge. But Vanke avoids the frenetic land bids that inflate prices. ''Vanke is ahead of the curve because it didn't join the frenzy and pay extremely high prices for land,'' says Kenny Ho, the head of China research for Jones Lang LaSalle. Ho says Vanke tends to buy cheaper land outside city centers or to acquire smaller rivals that already own land. For Wang, the object is simple: ''We try to build developments for people to live in, not for investors to turn for profit.''

A noble sentiment, but it can be hard to tell where Wang's business strategy ends and his patriotic duty begins. With Wang, the two can sometimes seem inseparable. For the last couple of years, Chinese leaders have been urging developers to build smaller, more affordable apartments for the millions of people squeezed out by rising prices. Vanke has dutifully promised to make more than half of its units smaller than 900 square feet and has outfitted some of its new projects with single-room, 500-square-foot apartments known as ''ant housing.'' Earlier this year, Vanke also became the first major developer to announce price cuts, which analysts say was either a shrewd move to fill the coffers in an uncertain market or an obliging response to a government desperate to rein in prices. Or perhaps both.

The most unusual intervention came in January, when Wang Shi appeared on China's state-run television and advised viewers not to buy houses for three or four years because ''the current market is dangerous.'' Why would a property mogul ask his customers to go away? Analysts wondered if Beijing had persuaded Wang to make the market-deflating statement, perhaps with the help of the state-owned conglomerate China Resources, which owns 16 percent of Vanke's stock. ''The relationship between China Resources and Vanke is not very transparent,'' Tse, of Aetos Capital, says. ''But if Beijing wanted to send a signal to the market, Wang Shi would be one of the first developers to embrace it publicly.''

PERHAPS NO place reflects the rise of China's middle class more than Shanghai, the city of 18 million that is the country's financial capital. The skyscrapers sprouting along the banks of the Huangpu River offer the most startling symbols of China's transformation. But it is the satellite cities mushrooming on the city's outskirts that capture how the economic explosion is shaping the way Chinese live. Several million Shanghai residents have already fled there. Another five million are expected to follow within the next 10 years.

Eager to accommodate this surge of prospective home buyers, Vanke has built almost an entire city on the western outskirts of Shanghai. Since completing its first residential compound in the farmlands of the Minhang area in 1994, it has built 14 other gated communities in the same area. Seven more are scheduled for construction. Vanke's Minhang developments cover the full range of budgets, from the tight cluster of high-rise buildings at Vanke City Garden to an American-style suburb of sprawling lawns and multimillion-dollar Spanish colonial mansions known as Rancho Santa Fe.

For now, China's middle class remains fragmented, confined to gated communities, each family focused on how to make the great leap upward. ''The neighbors in these new developments often don't even know each other's names,'' says Beibei Tang, a China-born doctoral candidate at the Australian National University who is writing her thesis on China's gated communities. ''The only thing these residents share is their identity as yezhu, homeowners. Before, people were bound by their work units. Now it's property rights.''

Wang Shi's hero Max Weber had a theory about this stage of capitalist development: When the bourgeoisie coalesces, it starts demanding things beyond a nice house, things like legal protections, a better education system and participation in public affairs. Property rights were written into the Chinese constitution only last year, but they have quickly become a powerful instrument. Middle-class homeowners in Minhang, for example, banded together in January to protest the extension of a high-speed train through their neighborhoods. And in communities across the country, newly formed homeowners' associations are giving residents a chance to debate -- and vote on -- issues affecting their communities. ''This is the first time,'' Tang says, ''that people have gotten to practice the democratic process.'' Paul French, the Shanghai-based founder of Access Asia, a market research firm, adds, ''Vanke is the very heartland where class solidification will come.''

Wang's self-interest could, in its own indirect way, contribute to that class consolidation. Not only does he create middle-class housing, but Vanke also tries to give people what they want -- including a sense of community. With so many newcomers converging on new compounds, community spirit is the hardest thing to conjure. This is especially true in Shanghai, where bulldozers have torn down the traditional lane neighborhoods, or longtang. Frank Sun, a 30-year-old salesman, remembers his ambivalence a decade ago when developers tore down the old house his family shared with four others in downtown Shanghai. ''It was an awful place,'' he says. ''But we had the feeling of a neighborhood.''

Sun has moved several times since then, edging farther into the suburbs each time, before landing in Vanke Holiday Town. The gated compound is nearly an hour from Shanghai, but Vanke organizes parties, concerts and sporting events to replicate a neighborhood feel. Sun now plays on one of Holiday Town's three soccer teams, competing in a league that consists solely of Vanke developments. ''I know Vanke does all this to create brand loyalty,'' Sun says. ''But it has really given us some community spirit.''

One thing that binds the middle class is a growing ecological awareness, so it may be no accident that Wang Shi is adding another identity to his portfolio: environmental crusader. It's not an easy trick for a captain of the construction industry, which consumes a colossal amount of energy and resources while gobbling up vast tracts of land. But Wang is promoting Vanke's new production model -- prefabricated construction -- as an attempt to reduce the company's carbon footprint, and he boasts of Vanke's commitment to building ''green developments.''

The logo for Spring Dew Mansion, a two-year-old Vanke development near Shanghai, is a glistening blue drop of water. A Vanke guide showed me around recently, pointing out 26 ecologically sensitive construction materials, from coated glass (to retain heat) to absorbent sidewalk bricks (to prevent flooding). A canal running through the compound has been turned into a small wetland complete with cattails and ''No Fishing'' signs. ''The environmental theme works,'' the young man told me, ''because this is what it means to be part of the international lifestyle.''

The guide paused as a commercial jet roared overhead, thrusting its engines after takeoff. He had failed to mention that Spring Dew Mansion sits directly under the flight path of the nearby Hongqiao airport. No matter. All of Spring Dew Mansion's 1,119 units, with an average price of about $150,000, were snapped up soon after they went on sale. Wang Shi had done it again. .