China at 60

knloregon · October 1, 2009

Bodeen is one of the AP's "Old China Hands" so a natural that he should report this story. But also note several of the gratuitous digs, particularly the story closing quote by the Claremont College Prof Minxin Pei: ".....the money would have been better spent on scholarships for students in impoverished rural areas...."

Even more slanted was the 'slide show' put together by Yahoo News. 187 slides, a high percentage of them of staged protests against China outside of China. Note how hard it was to get original material, and that much of it was of exactly the same people. Easily five times more pictures of protesters than of citizens in China following the celebration. In fact, more pictures of one idiot Tibetan protester outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi-----than of ALL the 1.4 billion Chinese...... (guy in yellow shirt----trying to get out the window of the bus)

BUT------on the bright side, several good pix of 'Girls with Guns"

:rolleyes:

Communist China marks 60 years with tanks, kitsch

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 24 mins ago

BEIJING ¨C Jets, tanks and missile-toting trucks thundered through Beijing on Thursday in a show of military muscle to celebrate six decades of communist rule and China's transformation from a war-battered regional player into global economic superpower.

Most people in the capital could only watch the elaborate ceremony for the founding of the People's Republic unfold on national television, as tight security excluded ordinary people from getting near the parade route through Tiananmen Square.

Precisely choreographed, the two-and-half-hour event hewed closely to tradition. President Hu Jintao, in a Mao jacket instead of a business suit, rode in an open-top Red Flag limousine to review the thousands of troops. A parade of kitschy floats, flanked by more than 100,000 people, lauded the communist revolution and the Beijing Olympics.

A female militia in red miniskirts and shiny white boots added a jolt of color to the sea of fatigues ¡ª and showcased efforts by the armed forces to be more inclusive.

Even the weather cooperated, after the government's aggressive cloud-seeding produced overnight showers to disperse smog and bring in blue skies.

"The message that is intended is: 'We are modern, we are Chinese, we are great, we are fantastic, and we all do it because of the great leadership of the Communist Party,'" said Steve Tsang, a China politics expert at Oxford University.

The most novel aspect was the weaponry, more than had been shown before and most of which was domestically produced: dozens of fighter jets and hundreds of tanks, artillery and trucks carrying long-range, nuclear-capable missiles.

"On this joyful and solemn occasion, all the peoples across the nation feel extremely proud for the progress and development of the motherland and have full confidence in the bright prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Hu said in a short speech standing atop Tiananmen gate with the rest of the collective leadership looking on.

Behind the celebrations is the tremendous change of fortunes China has experienced. A poor country that was weak internationally when the communists took over on Oct. 1, 1949, China has become the world's third-largest economy and a power whose input the U.S. seeks to solve the global economic crisis and Iran's nuclear challenge.

China is now the world's largest auto market and has more Internet and mobile phone users than anywhere else.

Virtually all Chinese families now have at least one television and, in the cities, a washing machine ¡ª rare items three decades ago. Some 15 million families own private cars, and many Chinese also own their own homes.

The parade floats showcased such material gains by toting models of high-speed trains, giant computers, cars and bundles of wheat and rice in the wake of the military's display.

Unmentioned during the event and crescendo of state media hype in recent weeks were the ruinous campaigns of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong that left tens of millions dead ¡ª as well as the country's current challenges: a widening gap between rich and poor, rampant corruption, severe pollution and ethnic uprisings in the western areas of Tibet and predominantly Muslim Xinjiang.

An evening gala on Tiananmen Square later Thursday featured thousands of performers singing and dancing for nearly two hours while dramatic bursts of multicolored fireworks erupted in the background. Driving home the party's message of harmony and ethnic unity, several songs were about the steadily improving and happy lives of Tibetans, ethnic Muslims and other minorities under communist rule.

The show, like the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics a year ago, was choreographed by film director Zhang Yimou.

As part of the night's finale, Hu and other top leaders descended from their VIP platform onto the square, holding hands and singing "Ode To The Motherland" along with the artists.

While the Olympics were meant to mark China's arrival on the world stage, both the parade and the gala squarely aimed to please a domestic audience with a strong emphasis on popular Chinese culture and appearances by national heroes, such as performing artists, astronauts and athletes.

The strategy seemed to work, with people gathering on side streets to get a glimpse of the passing parade or watching from home.

"China's power makes us proud. Over the span of 60 years, China has developed so rapidly," said retiree Wang Shumin, standing in a back alley watching the parade on TV through a shop window. "China is now powerful and has a position on the world stage."

But in Hong Kong, which has Western-style civil liberties as part of its special semiautonomous status, hundreds of people protested Thursday, denouncing China's human rights record during 60 years of communist rule.

About 200 people marched through the downtown financial district, chanting, "We want human rights. We don't want a sanitized National Day."

Tibetans also staged protested outside Chinese embassies in India and Nepal.

Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California, said the event continues a strategy deployed since the military crushed the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989: "a one-party state that uses its economic success to bolster its legitimacy in any way conceivable, including a Soviet-style military parade."

He said the money would have been better spent on scholarships for students in impoverished rural areas.

___

Associated Press writers Henry Sanderson and Gillian Wong in Beijing and Min Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

GZBILL · October 2, 2009

Bodeen is one of the AP's "Old China Hands" so a natural that he should report this story. But also note several of the gratuitous digs, particularly the story closing quote by the Claremont College Prof Minxin Pei: ".....the money would have been better spent on scholarships for students in impoverished rural areas...."

Even more slanted was the 'slide show' put together by Yahoo News. 187 slides, a high percentage of them of staged protests against China outside of China. Note how hard it was to get original material, and that much of it was of exactly the same people. Easily five times more pictures of protesters than of citizens in China following the celebration. In fact, more pictures of one idiot Tibetan protester outside the Chinese embassy in New Delhi-----than of ALL the 1.4 billion Chinese...... (guy in yellow shirt----trying to get out the window of the bus)

BUT------on the bright side, several good pix of 'Girls with Guns"

Communist China marks 60 years with tanks, kitsch

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 24 mins ago
BEIJING ¨C Jets, tanks and missile-toting trucks thundered through Beijing on Thursday in a show of military muscle to celebrate six decades of communist rule and China's transformation from a war-battered regional player into global economic superpower.
Most people in the capital could only watch the elaborate ceremony for the founding of the People's Republic unfold on national television, as tight security excluded ordinary people from getting near the parade route through Tiananmen Square.
Precisely choreographed, the two-and-half-hour event hewed closely to tradition. President Hu Jintao, in a Mao jacket instead of a business suit, rode in an open-top Red Flag limousine to review the thousands of troops. A parade of kitschy floats, flanked by more than 100,000 people, lauded the communist revolution and the Beijing Olympics.
A female militia in red miniskirts and shiny white boots added a jolt of color to the sea of fatigues ¡ª and showcased efforts by the armed forces to be more inclusive.
Even the weather cooperated, after the government's aggressive cloud-seeding produced overnight showers to disperse smog and bring in blue skies.
"The message that is intended is: 'We are modern, we are Chinese, we are great, we are fantastic, and we all do it because of the great leadership of the Communist Party,'" said Steve Tsang, a China politics expert at Oxford University.
The most novel aspect was the weaponry, more than had been shown before and most of which was domestically produced: dozens of fighter jets and hundreds of tanks, artillery and trucks carrying long-range, nuclear-capable missiles.
"On this joyful and solemn occasion, all the peoples across the nation feel extremely proud for the progress and development of the motherland and have full confidence in the bright prospects for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Hu said in a short speech standing atop Tiananmen gate with the rest of the collective leadership looking on.
Behind the celebrations is the tremendous change of fortunes China has experienced. A poor country that was weak internationally when the communists took over on Oct. 1, 1949, China has become the world's third-largest economy and a power whose input the U.S. seeks to solve the global economic crisis and Iran's nuclear challenge.
China is now the world's largest auto market and has more Internet and mobile phone users than anywhere else.
Virtually all Chinese families now have at least one television and, in the cities, a washing machine ¡ª rare items three decades ago. Some 15 million families own private cars, and many Chinese also own their own homes.
The parade floats showcased such material gains by toting models of high-speed trains, giant computers, cars and bundles of wheat and rice in the wake of the military's display.
Unmentioned during the event and crescendo of state media hype in recent weeks were the ruinous campaigns of revolutionary leader Mao Zedong that left tens of millions dead ¡ª as well as the country's current challenges: a widening gap between rich and poor, rampant corruption, severe pollution and ethnic uprisings in the western areas of Tibet and predominantly Muslim Xinjiang.
An evening gala on Tiananmen Square later Thursday featured thousands of performers singing and dancing for nearly two hours while dramatic bursts of multicolored fireworks erupted in the background. Driving home the party's message of harmony and ethnic unity, several songs were about the steadily improving and happy lives of Tibetans, ethnic Muslims and other minorities under communist rule.
The show, like the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics a year ago, was choreographed by film director Zhang Yimou.
As part of the night's finale, Hu and other top leaders descended from their VIP platform onto the square, holding hands and singing "Ode To The Motherland" along with the artists.
While the Olympics were meant to mark China's arrival on the world stage, both the parade and the gala squarely aimed to please a domestic audience with a strong emphasis on popular Chinese culture and appearances by national heroes, such as performing artists, astronauts and athletes.
The strategy seemed to work, with people gathering on side streets to get a glimpse of the passing parade or watching from home.
"China's power makes us proud. Over the span of 60 years, China has developed so rapidly," said retiree Wang Shumin, standing in a back alley watching the parade on TV through a shop window. "China is now powerful and has a position on the world stage."
But in Hong Kong, which has Western-style civil liberties as part of its special semiautonomous status, hundreds of people protested Thursday, denouncing China's human rights record during 60 years of communist rule.
About 200 people marched through the downtown financial district, chanting, "We want human rights. We don't want a sanitized National Day."
Tibetans also staged protested outside Chinese embassies in India and Nepal.
Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California, said the event continues a strategy deployed since the military crushed the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989: "a one-party state that uses its economic success to bolster its legitimacy in any way conceivable, including a Soviet-style military parade."
He said the money would have been better spent on scholarships for students in impoverished rural areas.
___
Associated Press writers Henry Sanderson and Gillian Wong in Beijing and Min Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.Questions or CommentsPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceCopyright/IP Policy

How about a link to the Yahoo! Slide Show you mentioned?

knloregon · October 2, 2009

Not seeing the original slide show on Yahoo----now there is another one which you can link to through the Reuters story: "China marks 60 years of Communist rule" ----in "top stories" not the same content though, and may not be available in PRC.

Daviation · October 2, 2009

I don't care what anybody says... those Chinese women soldiers were HOT!!

If China were to send them to the front, dressed like that... me thinks they'd roll right over just about any male army... the men would just be drooling and wondering "... what just happened???"!!!

knloregon · October 2, 2009

Yeah, but not very well camouflaged in candy apple red uniforms, and shinny white boots and barrettes... sub-machine-guns were more of a fashion accessory, but the officers white side arm holsters were a nice touch, don't you think?

weiaijiayou · October 2, 2009

Bodeen is one of the AP's "Old China Hands" so a natural that he should report this story.

Bodeen doesn¡¯t seem like much of a ¡°China hand¡± to me. In the articles I¡¯ve seen he reports on large events, gets official rhetoric, and then rehashes the foreign perspectives that we¡¯ve all heard a million times. The thing that¡¯s supposed to make someone a ¡°China hand¡± is that they¡¯re plugged into trends and events that elude non-experts. They know when western preconceptions, fears, or hopes are causing people to misunderstand things or have wrong expectations about China. These characteristics go back to the China hands of the 40s like John Service and John Fairbank. Western misunderstandings and anxieties about China are undoubtedly no less today than they were 70 years ago, and many of these are propagated in Bodeen¡¯s articles.

I noticed that you had said more than once that Bodeen is a China hand and I was just wondering why. He just doesn¡¯t give me that vibe. Some of the political stuff he writes makes me wonder if he even understands basic Chinese history. For me his articles also have an outside-looking-in feel, with no new insights into the minds and lives of Chinese people¡

October 2, 2009

I think the problem is none of the USA media outlets have a "China hand" so they just recite the same old rhetoric about China and sadly I think most ordinary USC's believe it.

GZBILL · October 2, 2009

I don't care what anybody says... those Chinese women soldiers were HOT!!

If China were to send them to the front, dressed like that... me thinks they'd roll right over just about any male army... the men would just be drooling and wondering "... what just happened???"!!!

Only logical conclusion: Some of you guys here are either blind or have tastes in women that only a poodle would envy.

I had a ringside seat at the spectacle and though the first groups of female soldiers (in normal combat uniforms) were good looking, those that came at the end in the red uniforms were as fugly as could be and had thunder thighs. I think the technical term for their unit is the Muffin Top Brigade.

Mike and Yan · October 2, 2009

I don't care what anybody says... those Chinese women soldiers were HOT!!

If China were to send them to the front, dressed like that... me thinks they'd roll right over just about any male army... the men would just be drooling and wondering "... what just happened???"!!!

Only logical conclusion: Some of you guys here are either blind or have tastes in women that only a poodle would envy.

I had a ringside seat at the spectacle and though the first groups of female soldiers (in normal combat uniforms) were good looking, those that came at the end in the red uniforms were as fugly as could be and had thunder thighs. I think the technical term for their unit is the Muffin Top Brigade.

god I hate the ugly truth...

I also thought they were HOT and the side arm was a very nice touch, very appealing. (not to mention those boots!!! )

NOW we find out that the real army is not so attractive. Bad ol' China covering up the truth again!!!!

October 2, 2009

I don't care what anybody says... those Chinese women soldiers were HOT!!

If China were to send them to the front, dressed like that... me thinks they'd roll right over just about any male army... the men would just be drooling and wondering "... what just happened???"!!!

Only logical conclusion: Some of you guys here are either blind or have tastes in women that only a poodle would envy.

I had a ringside seat at the spectacle and though the first groups of female soldiers (in normal combat uniforms) were good looking, those that came at the end in the red uniforms were as fugly as could be and had thunder thighs. I think the technical term for their unit is the Muffin Top Brigade.
god I hate the ugly truth...
I also thought they were HOT and the side arm was a very nice touch, very appealing. (not to mention those boots!!! )

NOW we find out that the real army is not so attractive. Bad ol' China covering up the truth again!!!!

:lol: :roller: :rotfl:

knloregon · October 2, 2009

"...I noticed that you had said more than once that Bodeen is a China hand and I was just wondering why...."

Ah, weiaijiayou, because he is literally "an Old China Hand" he has (seems to me at least) been reporting from China for as long as I have had an interest in China---early to mid-1990's. Hope I didn't give the impression that I approved of everything he said---just that he drew his assignment form the AP based on his status with that organization in China.

Actually, your post is right on target, and very insightful, I think....

......but even you refer Service and Fairbank as: "China Hands" And remember where that phrase was coined: I believe it can be traced to HK, and the British merchants (1800's) who, mostly, didn't want to get down and dirty with the Chinese on a regular basis, so they hired some lower class white to do it---and he reported back to them, pretty much what they wanted to hear.

Then there is also is the word that has fallen out of favor, but which I think is very descriptive and important, even today in Chinese/western trade: "compradore" the Chinese agent for a foreign business, and usually, the real brains behind the transaction, giving the "China Hand' what he needed to complete the deal....

Today, "Old China Hand" is a term alive and well in the foreign press corps. An interesting place to visit---if you can find a member to get you in, is the Foreign Press Club in Hong Kong... steeped in tradition, as one might imagine..

knloregon · October 2, 2009

".....I had a ringside seat at the spectacle and though the first groups of female soldiers (in normal combat uniforms) were good looking, those that came at the end in the red uniforms were as fugly as could be and had thunder thighs. I think the technical term for their unit is the Muffin Top Brigade...."

See, now there is some real "news you can use" ..... and not reported anywhere in the traditional western press ! Thank you GZ Bill ! Once again, proving the value of the Candle for its accurate---EYE WITNESS reporting of China's most important issues.....

...is kinda disappointing though.... :roller:

October 2, 2009

i watch how you talk about women with interest and a concern, i dont talk about or from feminism but from culture the days in china of women being same as men and deserving same respect started 60 years ago. to see women as thunder thighs makes them lose face and is disrespectful. I would have believed more from members here :roller:

david_dawei · October 3, 2009

Jin... there's an awful lot to learn about the west from this thread...

While the original article did not make use of any adjectives to describe the women, we quickly got to fairly sexist 'hotty' post; which was corrected with a mix that americans like about their language; mixing truth with biting scarcasm. And we still has further sexist remarks, all in normal linguist fun.

You choose to call out the one guy who was really calling out the first sexist remark, albeit with some hyperbolic metaphors. Honestly, these comments are the least offensive and yet the most humorous, from an american point of view (at least mine).

It's a linguistic one-up-manship game as well... everybody will get skewered in the process... like a good roast of a comedian... ok... maybe you won't quite what I'm saying...

knloregon · October 3, 2009

THANK YOU David for approaching the Jin dragon....

Now everybody ~!!! run for your lives ~ !!!!

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