Flagging at sunset
(Flag lowering ceremony in Tiananmen Square: Beijing, China)
On our first night in Beijing, my aunt was insistent that we see the daily ceremony of the flag being lowered at sunset in the square. It is raised in the morning at sunrise, but even the promise of a scratchy recording of the Chinese National Anthem can’t rouse my interest before 6am. The crowd that gathered for this event was more huge than I anticipated. On a similar theme, there had been some discussion about the queue to view Chairman Mao lying in state; I was adamant that the line would be stretching across the square and would take at least an hour, but probably longer to reach the front. Both Jane and my mother were similarly convinced that the line would be much shorter, their main reasoning being that The Chairman has been installed there for so long that he will have been visited enough already. I would like to add at this point that there were several moments during their time in China that we had discussions of this nature. Whilst I hardly possess local knowledge, I am certainly aware of some customs and trends within modern China. I do my utmost to avoid some of them, or at least prepare myself for certain situations. The line was indeed long, just for the record.
Beijing’s atmosphere is so different from that of Shanghai; I think there are a few major factors causing this difference, but there is one main feature. In Beijing, the military are everywhere. Suzhou and Shanghai offer slow moving policemen and an abundance of security guards, most of them startlingly young, perhaps in their late teens and early twenties with oversized overcoats, sneakers and a gently furry area being cultivated above their top lip. In Beijing, it is altogether more serious, even if the soldiers are surprisingly slender; Tiananmen Square is hoaching with these white belted soldiers standing sentinel over the activity within. Shortly before the flag ceremony, a military or police van creeps through the throngs of people, announcing warnings in Chinese, probably to the effect of public safety.
In this image, you can see the flag is about to be folded elaborately so it can be carried across the road with a military escort to the gate of the Forbidden City. What struck me most about the entire affair was the precision of the soldiers; all were exactly the same height, completely homogenous in identical attire with movements like fine clockwork, each in unison. It was not an outwardly spectacular display, but certainly impressive for anyone looking hard enough to realise how meticulously practiced and superbly machinelike they were.
