|
Blogs
Han Han on the death of Huang JuPosted by Joel Martinsen, June 5, 2007 11:58 AM
On Saturday, novelist Han Han was inspired by the death of Huang Ju to muse about the practice of lowering flags to half-mast for national tragedies. On his Bullog blog, the piece appeared in a second version titled "Sina administrators, is there anything wrong with this post?" His technique for masking Huang Ju's name to avoid Sina's censors was noted with approval in his blog's comments. China's flag is too unbendingby Han HanToday I saw the news that system filtered words passed away, with no further comment. This led me to think of when I was in middle-school when he was a leader in Shanghai and I heard his name every day. But this brought to mind the fact that our country only lowers flags to half-mast when national filtered words pass away. It seems that the flag is never lowered for civilian matters, no matter how big. I've basically never seen a flag at half-mast. One time at school the flag was raised to half mast where one of the pulleys got stuck, but that was a half-mast raising, not a half-mast lowering. Looking over other people who all live in an abyss of suffering in exploitative capitalist countries, whenever there are serious casualties among the people, they will all lower flags to half mast to pay their respects. Of course, you could take this to be merely a show, but aren't Chinese people lovers of formulaic writing? I hope that one day China can also do a bit of formality for the people. Of course, we must be strict and scientific, and draw up a head-count. For example, major accidents that kill more than one hundred people could have flags lowered to half mast to pay respects. In our country, this number would definitely be set quite high, at least ten times higher than other less sophisticated countries - first, this would demonstrate that our half-mast flags are of finer quality than the half-masts of other countries, and second, according to current safety conditions for manufacturing and traffic, if the head-count is set too low, the national flag would probably never have a chance to go all the way up. Because flags have never been lowered to half-mast for the general public, it's possible that the government would find this hard to accept on an emotional level. I have a Chinese-style solution: flagpoles could be doubled in height. This would satisfy both parties, and at half-mast the flag would be at a normal height. There's another advantage to this: it could go a long way to satisfying our countrymen's pitiful sense of national vanity - I'm sorry, that should be national pride. They play their national anthem once and their flag has reached the top; our national flagpole is long and our people ride high - the national anthem must be played twice before the flag gets to the top. Of course, I still hope that the day never comes that the flag is lowered to half mast for the people. What a major accident that would be, at least two 747s colliding. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
Gareth on
Gamble your life away in ZT Online
Inst on
The Mouse looms over Shanghai
Anonymous on
Giant Mao Zedong stands alone in the autumn cold
Joel Marti on
A centenarian monk reads the newspaper
little Ale on
Those damned English experts
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
![]() Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
Xujun Eberlein's Apologies Forthcoming: Hong Kong's Blacksmith Books has published a short story collection by Xujun Eberlein.
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The Dazhai Spirit gets religion (2007.10): In a Window of the South (南风窗) feature on model village Dazhai (大寨), Li Xiangping (李向平) writes about the role religion, in the form of the Pule Temple, plays in the village's changing identity. + Will the Boat Sink the Water? a review by Göran Leijonhufvud (2006.11): Göran Leijonhufvud, former China correspondent of several Scandinavian newspapers, is now researching village elections in minority nationalities areas in Yunnan. + One Country, Two Versions (2005.02): CEPA eases co-productions between the mainland and Hong Kong, but does it undermine creativity?
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
or Feedburner |





Comments on Han Han on the death of Huang Ju
I think they've shut down his Bulldog blog...