Xinhua Photo. Life in Military Parade Village
This week the eyes of world may be focused on New York, Tehran and Copenhagen, but China’s leaders very much hope that on the morning of October 1, Beijing time, you will tune in to catch their celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic. They have messages, both blunt and subtle, designed to show that China has a new relationship with the world.
Made in China Inc. There will be a grand military parade, a chance to showcase hardware that demonstrates China’s ability to compete with every other nation on the ground, in the air, on the waters and in space. Unlike previous parades, however, all of the weapons and equipment will be made in China. Acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou, the designer of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, presented the “soft power” version of Chinese nationalism for that event: a pageant showcasing Chinese culture, arts and creativity. The military organizers of the big parade of 2009 will try to one-up Zhang and at the same time present a much less subtle “hard power” message for the Chinese and the world: China has “arrived” as a military and economic superpower, and it does not need to rely on any other nation for its security. Left out of the parade lineup, however, will be China’s new “big guns,” because computer carts do not roll steadily, and geeks are simply not very good at marching in formation. Behind the scenes they will be hard at work, however, manning the Great Firewall of China and sticking a cyber-sock in the mouth of Facebook for the duration of the celebrations.
English Spoken Here. There will also be civilians on parade, designed to show that Chinese from all walks of life support the government and the Communist Party. In amongst them will be foreigners, mainly expatriates who live, study and work in the capital. Only a few invited foreign dignitaries witnessed previous parades. The foreigners marching here are intended to testify that China has truly opened up. Millions of foreigners visit China each year for business and tourism, and hundreds of thousands now call its cities home. The subtle message here is that the notoriously xenophobic Middle Kingdom now truly recognizes that it is part of the world.
— Read more about the media influencing the growth of a transnational Chinese middle class at the Transnational China Project of the Baker Institute.
— Read Steven Lewis’ Oct. 1, 2009, commentary in the Houston Chronicle, “Research on the Internet can lead to skewed results”
— Read insightful critiques of Chinese media at Danwei.org
— Learn how to sing the Chinese national anthem from Two Chinese Characters.
Steven W. Lewis is the Baker Institute’s fellow in Asian studies and faculty adviser for the Jesse Jones Leadership Center Summer in D.C. Policy Research Internship Program. He is also a professor in the practice and an associate director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies, as well as an affiliated faculty member of the Department of Sociology, at Rice University.