Chinese Language Blog

October 1, 1949 - the beginning of a new China.

Another Chinese National Day (国庆节 – Guó qìng jié) has come and gone, as yesterday marked the 62nd

人山人海 - people mountain people sea

anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国 – Zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó). On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong (毛泽东 – Máo Zé Dōng) declared the founding of a new nation in a ceremony at Beijing’s famous Tiananmen Square (天安门广场 – Tiān’ān mén guǎng chǎng). After years of war with the Kuomintang (国民党 – Guó mín dǎng) and years of suffering from the invading Japanese, China was finally united once again. The day was made a national holiday just a few months after the new China was born, on December 2, 1949. Fifty years later, in 1999, National Day was made a Golden Week (黄金周 – huáng jīn zhōu) along with the Spring Festival (春节 -Chūn jié). During the two Golden Weeks, three days of paid holiday are given to workers. In past years, many companies re-arranged the schedule to allow for a full seven days of holiday. This was set up to encourage development of the tourism industry, but the government soon found that this plan hadn’t worked out as they had hoped, and rather had undesirable economic consequences. As a result, most companies just take three days off now. Schools close down for the week as well, and many Chinese people travel, making the Golden Weeks the busiest travel season anywhere on Earth. Airports, train stations, and bus stations are packed full of people who are either heading home for a visit or embarking on a family vacation. Every year on October 1, thousands of Chinese people flock to Beijing to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (紫禁城 – Zǐ jìn chéng) to celebrate this patriotic day.

Fireworks above the Forbidden City.

Here are a few videos to get you in a nationalistic mood:

A video I made for the blog last year about my visit to Tiananmen on the holiday.

What did Chairman Mao REALLY say on that important day?

The full 3-hour HD production of CCTV’s 60th Anniversary Special from 2009.

A sculpture from Beijing's 798 Art District typifying social despair.

Much like inflation, housing speculation and unemployment, income inequality is becoming a hot topic issue in China, stoking nationalist sentiment and prompting social movements and protests. For a supposed communist nation (although we know better), such a divide in wealth foments anger and fosters reactionary sentiment.  As income inequality grows, so does the 800 pound gorilla in the room. China can keep it caged, but for how long?

Income inequality or 收入不平等 (shōu rù bù píng déng) can be statistically measured by the Gini coefficient, or the statistical dispersion/discrepancy among income classes. China’s Gini Coefficient is 41.5 and climbing quickly. The US is already at a staggering 45, placing it among the top 1/3 of mostly failed states where money equates into military might and political influence. See the CIA factbook for an entire list. In countries like the U.S. and China, these large margins between the rich and poor (or even the rich and middle class) greatly influence quality of life and standards of living.

In China, financial crunch, similar to what the US, EU and most of the world experienced during the last 3 years, is coming. Anecdotal stories of such are everywhere. Whether it’s a landlord being squeezed on by a corrupt official, a family that forces a breakup of an engagement due to poor “social status” or a factory worker whose family was so indebted that they couldn’t pay for the funeral, China is a polarized nation, filled with rich entrepreneurs and the remaining struggling masses. Now add in a housing bubble that is causing inflation and homelessness, and you have an idea just how hard it is to make it in China.

A side street in Kashgar's Ouighur district.

This fact is only amplified when you look at a break down of per capita GDP among provinces within China. Coastal provinces such as Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong and Jiangsu all have staggeringly high GDP’s per capita and much higher average incomes than their inland counterparts. In fact, as you go west, there is a steady decline in average incomes, with periphery provinces like Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang earning near half of their coastal-counterparts. As a result, development has faltered due to a lack of highways, railways, local governmental corruption and cultural discrimination in these innermost areas of China.

It’s not a surprise to me that most social conflict (be it ethnic minority riots, protests for housing relocation and demolition, or school attacks) happens in these very locations, where competition is everything and social mobility is a pipe-dream. We read about China’s amazing GDP, but seem to cast a blind eye to the other part of the country that is struggling to keep up. Uneven development leads to social despair, and ultimately, social unrest.

Every year on October 1, China celebrates its National Holiday.  This year marked the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China by Mao Ze Dong and the Communist Party in 1949.

I decided to join the throngs of Chinese tourists commemorating the holiday in and around Tiananmen Square by waving flags and taking photos. Then, I headed to Zheng Yang Men (the Front Gate) to learn a little history and see the vast differences between old and new Beijing.

今天是国庆节，所以我在天安门广场 – jīn tiān shì guó qìng jié, suǒ yǐ wǒ zài tiān ān mén guǎng chǎng
Today is National Day, so I am at Tiananmen Square.

生日快乐! – shēng rì kuài lè
happy birthday

这么多的人 – zhè me duō de rén
so many people

爱国者 – Ài guó zhě
patriot

故宫 – gù gōng
Imperial Palace (Forbidden City)

中国国家博物馆 – Zhōng guó guó jiā bó wù guǎn
China National Museum

人民大会堂 – Rén mín dà huì táng
Great Hall of the People

毛主席纪念堂 – Máo zhǔ xí jì niàn táng
Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

很多孩子有国旗 – hěn duō hái zi yǒu guó qí
flag

开裆裤 – kāi dāng kù
split pants

拍照 – pāi zhào
take photos

庆祝中国人民共和国成立六十一周年 – Qìng zhù zhōng guó rén mín gòng hé guó chéng lì liù shí yī zhōu nián (In the video, I accidentally added a second “zhōng guó” to the subtitle.. this is the correct version)
Celebrate the 61st anniversary of the founding of the PRC

正阳门 – zhèng yáng mén
front gate

老北京 – lǎo běijīng
old Beijing

新北京 – xīn běijīng
new Beijing

皇帝 – huáng dì
emperor

皇后 – huáng hòu
empress

书法 – shū fǎ
calligraphy

勒布朗詹姆斯 – Lēi bù lǎng zhān mǔ sī
LeBron James

星巴克 – xīng ba kè
Starbucks

麦当劳 – mài dāng láo
McDonald’s

肯德基 – kěn dé jī
KFC