October 1st marked the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. It was a very big deal here. To the Chinese, a person’s 60th birthday is extremely special because it signifies having lived a “full cycle” – which is represented by the 12 zodiac animals that most of us know from Chinese restaurants (e.g., rat, ox, pig, dog, etc.) and the less commonly known five elements of the zodiac – fire, wood, earth, metal and water. For those mathematically challenged, 12x5=60. Family members put a lot of effort into celebrating one’s 60th birthday as it represents a moment of immense pride. Therefore, it is no surprise that October 1, 2009 – sixty years to the day when Mao Zedong stood on the balcony of the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking Tiananmen Square and declared the founding of the PRC – represented an incredibly important day for this nation.
This year, Guo Qing Jie (Chinese National Day) and the lunar-calendar based Mid-Autumn Festival overlapped, which combined to give the Chinese people a week off from school and work (and to effectively shut the country down for a while). Everyone was in a celebratory mood and anticipated the broadcast of the Guo Qing Jie celebrations on TV. On the morning of October 1st, we watched the 2+ hour military and civilian parade on TV, which was broadcast live on every channel (and continues to be rebroadcast for our multiple viewing pleasure).
Like the ‘coming-out’ party last year at the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government wanted to put
on a similarly polished show to commemorate this day. The military parade was impressive and the preparation and practice of the parade participants was immediately apparent. The military might of the country was equally impressive—television commentators frequently emphasized that the machinery and weaponry was made completely in China. We thought it was interesting that the parade started in reverse. President Hu Jintao was driven from Tiananmen Square down the parade to greet the thousands of troops who were standing at order ready to begin the parade. For each group, he had one of two greetings – one of which was, “Tongzhimen hao,” which means, “Hello, comrades.” [One interesting side note is that “tongzhimen”, which means “comrade” has been adopted in modern day colloquial Chinese as a term for gay people.] The President drove to the very end of the parade, stopping at the last group, a group of military women (in red retro-stewardess dresses and white go-go boots), before turning around to head back to the front of the parade. Every soldier’s head turned in robotic synchrony as the president drove by. The parade began and the soldiers displayed precise goose-stepping as they passed by the main stage of the parade route. Amidst all the ground-to-surface missiles and spy planes, one type of amphibious vehicle was highlighted by the television commentator “for its use in combating the United States’ aggression in Korea in the 1950s.” Hmmmmmmm……interesting.
The civilian part of the parade followed the military salute and it started with tributes to the main leaders of China since 1949 – Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaopoing, Jiang Zimen and Hu Jintao. Following the political rhetoric were many floats, each surrounded by hundreds of people performing synchronized routines. Float themes highlighted the progress made in various aspects of Chinese society over the last 60 years– e.g., agriculture, transportation, and space exploration to name a few. There was even one float dedicated to “environmental protection” and the one for “energy” was solar powered. A main theme throughout the day’s celebration was the inclusion and recognition of “the 56 indigenous ethnic minorities” who make up a small percentage of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. Given the racial riots that occurred in Tibet last year and the riots in Xinjiang this year, it is no surprise that the government would try to emphasize peace and integration during these ceremonies.
During our time in China, we’ve come to expect that these types of events will involve a vast amount of people who you can tell have practiced, practiced and practiced to obtain perfect synchronization in their routines. The end results are visually stunning. When I asked one of the 14 year-old kids that I tutor, what she thought of the ceremony, she responded, “I think there are too many Chinese people living in China.” The vast number of parade participants was a reminder to her and us that 20% of the world’s population lives in China.
The parade ended with thousands of adorable Chinese children carrying multi-colored balloons that they released into the sky in front of the main parade stand. As the balloons flew away, the kids (who represented “the future of the country”) ran towards the viewing platform waving colorful hoops towards their country’s leaders, who warmly greeted them with smiles on their faces.
In the evening, Tiananmen Square was full again for nighttime performances and fireworks. The fireworks were stunning and the performances were a spectacle, but at times they blurred the line between “celebration” and “public relations”. We watched the evening gala for a little while, but after performances of the songs, as translated by CCTV9 (China’s only English TV station), entitled “Xinjiang is a Happy Place” and the Tibet-inspired, “Emancipated Serfs are Happy”, we decided that we had sufficiently celebrated this year’s Chinese National Day.
This was our third and final Guo Qing Jie in China. It was good to end it all with such pomp and circumstance. Immediately afterwards, we watched the British movie, “The Boat that Rocked”, which portrayed the story of a group of British people in the late 1960s who challenged their government’s restrictions on the radio airtime of rock-n-roll music by operating a pirate radio station from a boat out in the ocean. It was an interesting juxtaposition and a reminder that Britain and the United States in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, with their restrictions on music, movies, etc. weren’t all that different from the China of today.
We wish China all the best on its 60th birthday. The unity, strength and pride that this nation has developed since 1949 are commendable, especially given the historical context of the last two centuries. It was only after living here that we learned that from the late 1800s through the 1940s this country has endured an immense amount of crap imposed upon them by foreign countries. After that, they struggled internally through growing pains that included a civil war and the Cultural Revolution [one should read The Search for Modern China for a better understanding of it all]. As China completes one 60-year cycle and begins another, we wish it continued success in the economic prosperity, poverty reduction and education improvements achieved during its ‘reform and opening’ of the last 30 years. We also wish all Chinese people and their government peace and harmony both internally and externally as they continue to work toward their goals of a “peaceful and harmonious society”.
Photos for this blog were borrowed from China Daily, the UK Guardian, the UK Telegraph and boston.com.
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