Hello, Xiaoping!

October 1, 2008, marks the 59th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua reports that 190,000 spectators watched the flag-raising ceremony in Tian'anmen Square this morning.

This year is also the thirtieth anniversary of the economic and institutional reform policies launched at the end of the 1970s. The Beijing News, which is running an extended series of articles to mark that anniversary, devoted yesterday's feature to the festivities surrounding the 1984 National Day, when the line "Hello, Xiaoping" (小平您好) entered public consciousness.

During the National Day parade that year, Peking University students unfurled an unauthorized, hand-made banner greeting China's top leader by his first name. The Beijing News interviewed Guo Jianwei, one of the students who conceived the banner, and Wang Dong, the People's Daily photographer who snapped the most famous image of it. Guo describes how he and his classmates came up with the banner text and how they snuck it into the parade. Wang explains why he was one of only two photojournalists to get a shot of it (the only other known photographs of the banner were taken by He Yanguang, a reporter with the China Youth Daily), and how it almost didn't make it into print.

The Beijing News: How did you come up with the idea of writing the "Hello Xiaoping" banner?
Guo Jianwei: It was an impulsive thing. The student who did the actual writing was named Chang Sheng, and he was the initiator. The day before the 1984 National Day we were in our classrooms at the request of the higher-ups, arranging flowers in preparation for the mass parade the following day.

He came back late and we had already finished with the work. He liked doing unusual, unorthodox things, and because he knew that the next day would definitely be televised live, he said that he should write a few words to let everyone in the world see his calligraphy. We all agreed, and began thinking of a slogan.

TBN: What slogans did you come up with at first?
Guo: We mainly wanted it to be something entirely unique. "Long Live Deng Xiaoping" (邓小平万岁) was immediately vetoed as being essentially part of a cult of personality. People suggested "Rejuventate China" (振兴中华), "Reform Education" (教育要改革), and "Increase the Pace of the Reform and Opening Up" (加快改革开放步伐), but these were rejected for not being original.

TBN: So how did you come up with "Hello, Xiaoping?"
Guo: Maybe it's something particular to Peking University, that we're "willing to be first in the world." Although we hadn't seen Deng Xiaoping, we had benefited from the policies he championed: ending the chaos, the opening and reforms, and the resumption of the college entrance exams.

We felt that we should let the country and the leadership know about our feelings. We went back and forth, and came up with "Hello, Comrade Deng Xiaoping," and then we decided we didn't need the "Deng."

TBN: How did the "Comrade" come to be deleted?
Guo: We used a classmate's sheet for the backing, and when we were pinning up the characters, we discovered they wouldn't fit. We all had some misgivings - would this be appropriate? This wasn't the way leaders were addressed in China, and it was a big enough step to put "Comrade Xiaoping" up there in the first place. Would taking out "Comrade" leaving only "Xiaoping" be disrespectful, or even counter-revolutionary?

But after we continued to discuss it, we felt that there was no malice in it; we just wanted to give a friendly greeting to a leader on the part of college students. So we bucked up our courage and got rid of "Comrade," because in the end there wasn't enough room.

TBN: How many students were involved?
Guo: I don't really remember now. I know that Chang Sheng, Zhang Zhi, Li Yu, Mao Xiaohong, Luan Xiaofeng, and Wang Xinli were there.

Ultimately, all the male students in the class knew about it. Everyone kept it secret, because our superiors didn't allow us to carry in anything that hadn't been reviewed.

TBN: So how did you get the banner in?
Guo: Another student and I were responsible for taking it into the formation. We wore white labcoats, and then rolled up the banner and held it and three extendable poles straight at our sides, right up into our armpits. We couldn't bend our legs, so it walking became tiring. We had tall people on either side to shield us. When we had walked past Wangfujing and had reached Chang'an Avenue, we handed it to a tall guy who stood more than 1.8 meters.

TBN: The security inspection didn't find it?
Guo: There was no security inspection. But you weren't allowed to bring in any personal items; the examination was really strict. A student in the Peking University formation had brought a camera to take some photos, but when they discovered it they opened it and exposed the film. So we were taking a big risk. We were impulsive, but we were confident and felt we'd be able to take it in. And nothing ended up happening.

TBN: How long was the banner up during the parade?
Guo: Just a few seconds. Because it was a mass parade, the ranks were fairly loose, particularly in the Peking University formation. The formations ahead of us proceeded normally, but when the Peking University formation reached Tian'anmen it stopped, and all the students looked up at the gate. We'd just unfurled the banner when people behind us told us to hurry up, and then everyone started running. It was really chaotic and we dropped the banner.

TBN: Were you afraid of any consequences?
Guo: When the parade concluded, the younger brother of one of our classmates heard police at the Xidan intersection say, those PKU kids are too brazen. They've got to be taught a lesson. When we heard that, we all took off.

I went to a relative's house in Beijing where I hid out for a few days.

TBN: Didn't you know that the People's Daily ran a positive report on the incident the next day?
Guo: I only found out about that a few days later. When I saw the positive propaganda in the paper, I felt relieved and returned to school.

TBN: Did the school say anything to you about bringing in the "Hello, Xiaoping" banner without authorization?
Guo: One of the nice things about Peking University is that it's very tolerant. They didn't feel the incident was all that big. They didn't punish us, but they didn't reward us, either.

TBN: How did people outside the school interpret your action?
Guo: It really was a captivating moment and was the focus of a lot of publicity, which I feel went a little too far, as if we only lived for politics. It wasn't like that at all. It was only a simple patriotic display on our part, not anything important.

TBN: Do you think that has anything to do with the era you were living in?
Guo: Our minds had already been open by that time, in some respects even more open than things are now. People at Peking University were intrinsically concerned with the country's future. Connecting yourself to the fate of the country was something common to all college students in the 80s.

TBN: From a historical standpoint, you did something that defined an era.
Guo: Looking back now, our actions were indeed historically significant.

Without "Hello, Xiaoping," you wouldn't be able to go from "Long Live Chairman Mao" to "Fans of Hu and Wen." We unwittingly accomplished something that influenced history, but it was a pure action, something based on our feelings and knowledge at the time.

TBN: What effect did it have on your life?
Guo: It didn't help, but it didn't hurt either. We never saw it as something to burnish our reputations. Chang Shen eventually broke up with the only girl who took part in the incident, and he eventually went overseas. Luan Xiaofeng returned to Harbin to play and coach chess.

Later on, my girlfriend found out about it and said, you were part of that, but now look at you. My current work unit doesn't know about my part in the incident, but we're still proud that we were able to do it.

TBN: You said that the photo of "Hello, Xiaoping" taken by People's Daily photographer Wang Dong doesn't show you in it. Are you disappointed?
Gou: I'm not disappointed. History will remember be. If there's anything to be disappointed about, it's that we weren't able to save the banner.

The Beijing News: It's said that before the troop review at National Day 1984, you weren't an accredited photojournalist.
Wang Dong: Correct. People's Daily had one slot for a photojournalist, and it went to someone else. The assistant general editor sent in another application, and I got a press pass on the 30th of September.

TBN: At the ceremony, where were you standing to take photos?
Wang: There were three or four hundred photographers, and the organizers had set up a single platform at Jinshui Bridge in front of Tian'anmen Gate. The reporters were all standing there, but there was no space for me.

I had a driver with the agency motor pool set up a platform one meter square and two meters high at the southern end of Jinshui Bridge. I shot the party and state leaders on Tian'anmen Gate with a fixed-angle telephoto lens, and then used a Leica to shoot the parade.

TBN: When did the "Hello, Xiaoping" banner appear?
Wang: I don't recall exactly. There was the army formation up front, and then the missiles and tanks, and then it was the mass formation.

TBN: How did you notice the banner?
Wang: I was looking at both Tian'anmen and the parade. The telephoto was all set up; all I had to do was click the shutter with one hand. For the parade ranks, I took photos whenever I saw something interesting. They waited to bring it out until they were right in front of the rostrum, and the ran off after showing it for a moment because they couldn't linger there.

I saw it right when they unfurled it, and after I took a couple photos it was gone, just a few seconds. The other big banners were all well-made and standardized. Even though there were also handwritten signs reading "Long Live the Motherland" and "Celebrate National Day," their handwritten sign was interesting.

TBN: Didn't you think they were pretty gutsy? After all, they were addressing Xiaoping directly.
Wang: I thought it was interesting. At the People's Daily we had the habit of calling people by name rather than using "comrade" or their official title. So I didn't really find it strange for them to write "Xiaoping" on the banner.

TBN: It's said that the photo nearly didn't make it into the papers back then.
Wang: There wasn't a shot of "Hello, Xiaoping" among all the photos that Xinhua and PLA Daily sent over that day. The night editor couldn't decide what to do, because the banner was non-standard.

That day's issue had major news on page 1 and page 4, and it wasn't selected for either page. I was a little disappointed. Bao Weijun, who was head of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Department at the time, was a pretty open-minded individual. He said, the photo's good, so run it across two columns on page 2. So it's thanks to Bao Weijun that the photo made it into the paper (Bao later became the deputy editor-in-chief of the People's Daily).

China Youth Daily version, by He Yanguang

TBN: What was the reaction when the paper came out the next day?
Wang: The day the photo went out in the paper, the first call we got came from Xu Chuan, editor of Sichuan Daily, who congratulated us for taking such a historic photo.

Some people think that anyone could have taken that photo. True, it's a simple photo, and if you were told before hand that the event would happen, anyone could have taken it. But no one told you, so not everyone would have been able to take it.

There were several hundred other reporters at the scene, and as far as I know, only China Youth Daily reporter He Yanguang got the shot. I've heard that when Xinhua's photo department summed up the propaganda work for the 35th National Day, it said that the major slip-up in its reporting was that it missed out on the scene of Peking University students holding up a banner reading "Hello, Xiaoping."

TBN: That photo brought you quite a bit of accolades, didn't it?
Wang: It won the National News Photo Prize for 1985 and a special prize for national good news. And there was an award of 500 yuan. At the time my annual income was a little over 100 yuan, so I deposited it. An association said that it would give me a motorcycle, but in the end it didn't [laughs].

TBN: Did the photo have any effect on your life or work?
Wang: I was fifty when I took that photo. I was a head reporter at the time, and I stayed a head reporter until I retired. But regardless, that photo was the most precious one I took in my career as a photojournalist.

Previous National Day posts on Danwei: The 'national' in National Day, Another National Day, by Gereme R. Barmé