Seventy one years “New China” has been in existence, since Mao ZeDong raised the red flag with five golden stars that would represent the nation. This flag-raising now takes place every sunrise and sunset regardless of the weather. On the 1st, 11th, and 21st of every month, a band accompanies the soldiers in raising the flag to play the National anthem, otherwise the anthem is played over the loudspeakers.
There’s not much going on for this year’s National Day, however, as the big military parades are only held every five years for a “small” parade and then every ten years for a “big” parade. The 70th anniversary in 2019 was the latest “big” parade to take place and seemed more for broadcast than personal attendance.
Personally, I arrived just before Mainland China’s 65th anniversary and was in Taiwan for their 70th. Big spectacles as they are, the parades are covered by the media and put on repeat in the subway system for months on end. Getting into them, however, is a bit more tricky and no one I’ve met could tell me how I could actually be in Tiananmen Square for such a celebration. It may be that they don’t want foreigners there, opting for Chinese nationals, which would make sense, or just that security needs to be that tight that the crowd has to be carefully vetted, which I wouldn’t hold against them either. The other option is that the general populace is simply not allowed in and should settle for the broadcast spectacle instead.
Whatever the case, this year’s National Day seems to be rather quiet.
The funny thing about the National Day is that it is one of the two long work-breaks that the country gets in the year, the other being the Spring Festival holiday in January or February. So, instead of proudly declaring themselves with flags and fireworks and boasting how great of a country it is as many other nations do, it seems people take the opportunity to actually leave the country and travel to another place.
This year, however, people aren’t talking about travelling to other countries. It might be because they can’t but also because there’s no money to do so. There is a chance that everybody fled the city Tuesday or Wednesday night but I didn’t see too many people dragging luggage behind them. It seems as if people are actually staying put this year, staying inside, and simply taking a rest.
As for the National Day itself, the weather hasn’t helped with its early clouds and mist (and the smog, which was reading 135 on the air quality index earlier in the morning). My compound has been quiet all day. The kids just got back to school a couple of weeks ago so they are no doubt playing some sort of catch up or trying to get ahead in their studies, or at least their parents might be encouraging them to do so. They would know how to study at home by now given the fact that they had six months of experience this year so far.
I see now that the clouds are starting to part and the sun is peeking through. This might bring the people out of their homes in the afternoon to go out and do some stuff, be it to the park or, most likely, to the malls.
The one neat thing I did see happen today was the Amap’s animation of the Forbidden City:
Other than that, by way of nationalism it was a bit quiet. It might be that people were busy making Moon cakes (yue bing, 月饼🥮) for Mid-Autumn Festival which also fell on October 1st of this year. I was going to take a class on how to make them but for the cost I figured I could get the ingredients and try it out for myself, but we’ll see how that turns out.
So, instead of just being China’s National Day Golden Week it is, in fact, 双节快乐 (shuangjie kuaile), which means “Happy Two Festivals”, the two being the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival all at once.
With that, do people wish each other Happy China Day?