Telegraph: China Anniversary: kites, knives and pigeons all banned

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China Anniversary: kites, knives and pigeons all banned


By Peter FosterPeter Foster moved to Beijing in March 2009. He was formerly the Daily Telegraph's South Asia Correspondent based New Delhi from 2004-2008. He is married with three children.

[size=1.3em]Last updated: September 21st, 2009


[size=1.4em]Just quick note today as I’m still shaking from the aerial ‘bombardment’ of my office by half the Chinese air force which flew past the window this lunchtime on a practice run for the National Day parade next week.

[size=1.4em]I must confess not to being a plane-spotter, but basically there were a lot of bristly, pointy things flying down Chang’an Avenue at near roof-top height, followed by several squadrons of slower, whirly things chugging along behind. All very impressive. Formations looked very tight from where I was sitting and no-one crashed, so ‘mission accomplished’ I guess.

[size=1.4em]Beijing feels kind of under siege at the moment with this anniversary business. The local paper says that kite flying has been banned, which must be true since I haven’t seen any for days. This saddens me, as I love watching Beijing’s kites and miss the sight of them out of my appartment window, particularly at night when they fly with neon-lit tails.

[size=1.4em](When I first arrived in BJ I mistook these hovering, glimmering things for a UFO, calling my wife to the balcony in great excitement. This sounds ridiculous but they fly at such an astonishingly high altitude, I maintain it was an easy mistake to make.)

[size=1.4em]The paper also says flying pigeons is banned until after National Day (didn’t realise China was a nation of pigeon fanciers) but I can’t testify personally to this, since I’ve not seen much in the way of racing pigeons since arriving here.

[size=1.4em]More seriously, security, already incredibly tight for days now, has reached at ‘extreme’ levels following two stabbing incidents in the city this past week which resulted in the death of three people, including a Frenchwoman at the weekend.

[size=1.4em]This recalls the fatal stabbing of a supporting member of the US team at the Drum and Bell Tower during last year’s Olympic Games. As a foreigner in Beijing (a very safe city generally speaking), I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly unnerved by the though that I could get stabbed by a mad nationalist for no other reason than being foreign.
[size=1.4em]However, as a result of these attacks, the government has ordered the removal of all knives from sale in Beijing. We shouldn’t laugh about something so serious, but I can’t think of anything that so typifies the absolute absurdity of government in China sometimes.

[size=1.4em]No doubt it was intended as a move to ‘reassure the public’, but honestly, even the most inept of murderers should be able to find a kitchen knife without having to go out shopping. What next? Police going door-to-door ordering all of the cities 18 million residents to ‘hand over their knives’?
[size=1.4em]Right now, I wouldn’t put anything past them.

[size=1.3em]http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterfoster/100010668/china-anniversary-kites-knives-and-pigeons-all-banned/

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作者PETER FOSTER是英国每日电讯报驻中国记者，这篇是他的博客文章。

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COMMENTS

force8 on Sep 21st, 2009 at 12:53 pm

It’s somewhat ironic, Peter, that you as a Brit would complain about absurd government orders concerning knives. I saw a young boy(about nine or ten) at Tescos the other day trying to buy a bag of plastic cutleries but was refused because you have to be over 18 to buy knives in Britain. I don’t know how that little boy managed to eat his pasta salad in the end but I do remember thinking this was most absurd and doubted its effectiveness.



krisbatton on Sep 21st, 2009 at 4:04 pm

Peter,
with all due respect we should not jump to conclusions as to the motivations of the individual who stabbed the “elderly” (as she is described in some reports)French lady.
There is nothing to suggest it has any sinister ‘nationalistic’ connotations.
The earlier stabbing, where there were deaths, was an act committed by someone who an only be described as “a looney”; every society has them. And if you have 1.4bn population, the law of averages suggests you’ll have more than any other country.
It seems very similar to the Olympics period stabbings at the Drum Tower.
In judging the preparations for the Oct 01 activities try to put yourself in the place of a Chinese leader (it doesn’t matter what the background of that person is - modernist, reformer, young, old, ) and what would you do? Once you can establish the vast scale and scope of the occasion, recognise what it means to the vast mjority of the Chinese people; then you might understand why its not wise to have 16m people lining the streets, and why everything must be zero based thinking.



Peter Foster on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 1:59 am

Krisbatton. I can completely understand where China’s leaders are coming from, but I think it says something profound about Chinese society - or more accurately the fragility of the social contract between Chinese people and their leaders - that 16m people can’t be left to line the streets. It’s a National Day celebration to which the nation has not been invited, or at least has only been invited strictly on the Party’s terms. To me, a foreigner, it seems a strangely joyless affair, given how much real achievement China does have to celebrate.



Ralph in West China on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 2:56 am

I think those readers who don’t reside in China might be shocked at a visit to a knife shop here. I was in one this week albeit looking at posh, mini torches in another cabinet. They have hundreds and as wicked looking as any coveted by feral psychos. Some are curved and serrated as one sees in computer games with futuristic warriors. There are tri-bladed ones and flick-blades. Clasp knives beautifully crafted but easily hidden.There are Japanese, samurai daggers and swords. There are ninja throwing blades and matching sharpeners to hone them to razor, cutting edges. I mean a choice of hundreds. Then the collections of multi-knives such as leatherman and the famed Swiss Army knife ( there are maybe a dozen SAK specialist shops here in Mianyang).Those cabinets must have a 100 types with a staggering array of ‘useful’ blades.
What’s that in the corner of the shop? Oh, just the space-age selection of crossbows ! Who needs to shaft a rhino at 300m here in the Middle Kingdom? Some are simply one hand, pistol ones and others are Rambo’s. Catapults for anyone?; lots.
One goes to a friend’s home and there is a sword on the wall. There is a shiny kriss on it’s stand near the child doing her homework. There is a man sharpening his pencil with something from the armour collection in the V&A.
Me? I have a sword from the Qiang people bought near Jiuzhaigou some years ago. Old and in it’s snakeskin scabbard and resting on it’s shelf ready to slash any intruder who dares to mess with me.



Ralph in West China on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 3:06 am

PS… most of the pigeons are for eating. Farmers rear chickens and…. oh yes, City dwellers do too.
Kites. It’s a trifle weird living on the 26th floor directly above the promenade on the riverside. Kites drift past the windows and balcony.
It is spectacular up her with the whole waterside lit up in the evenings but what happened was so spooky and chilly.
There was Mrs Lucky and myself sitting on the sofa one evening when a huge chicken floated outside our window ! Chickens cannot fly !!( the record is only about 17 metres). It popped up and popped down a bit and flapped it’s lickle wings and wobbled it’s footsies.It looked surreal and indeed it was unreal. A child must be wailing in despair below thought I as I realised it was one of those animal balloons beloved by grandparents tending their precious emperors and princesses.I calmed my lady who quivered in fear at the monster flying amongst the bats and swallows.




tvnewswatch on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 4:45 am

You say the French woman died? I thought she was OK! “The attack was not serious, the woman was not hurt seriously and has already rejoined her tourist group,” a French Embassy spokesman told Agence France-Presse. Nonetheless a serious and disturbing incident like you say. As a foreigner, or wàiguórén [外国人], we stand out like sore thumbs, even here in Beijing. I find that while Beijingers are general fine, it is the migrant worker, often poor and struggling to make ends meet, who display hostility to us. Both attackers, who were promptly caught, were from outside Beijing, one from Jilin province the other from Jiangxi province.
Foreign press are not too welcome here either. Something which you did not mention was the beating & smashing of equipment of a Japanese news team in the Beijing Hotel on Chang’an Ave on Friday night. By whom, police and law enforcement. Why? because they’d been filming the parade rehearsals.
I’m kind of surprised I’ve not been challenged as I’ve been strolling around Beijing snapping pics of armed guards, SWAT teams and APCs, tho’ I was doing no different from dozens of Chinese locals some of whom posed for pictures by the military vehicles parked up around the capital.
The ban on flying things also extends to balloons, as well as kites & pigeons. There are large notices in a park near Tiantan [The Heavenly Temple]. I did see someone trying to fly a small kite, and the looked particularly nervous as I walked by. All dressed in black I guess for a moment I was one of the paramilitary cops stationed around the city.
As regards the actual day, most people I’ve spoken too are resigned to staying at home and watching on TV. Chang’an Ave will be sealed off and the perimetre will extent for at least a block both north & south of that. More interested in seeing the aircraft, though finding a good vantage point may prove difficult. It Jinshan park closed on the day as that would be perfect. Great blog by the way. Mine is on blogspot [tvnewswatch] so its not easily accessible here. But still keeping posts going. Check out my bat story, I wouldn’t have believed there were so many bats in Beijing!

tvnewswatch on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 am

As regards the aircraft which flew over Beijing on Monday; the fighters were Guizhou JL-9 trainer aircraft, there were several waves of H-6 bombers flying in formations of 3 and around 20 army and navy helicopters, all of which appeared to be WZ9 attack helicopters [similar to the Eurocopter SA 365/AS365 Dauphin 2]. You may have also spotted the Chinese AWACS KJ-2000 which has been buzzing the skies over the last month.



Panda@War on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
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There are deeper issues here you people need to comprehend if want to be taken more seriously as an amateur China watcher/s.
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Firstly and foremost, it is a totally different culture mentality which decides how and why.
When talking about China, most Westerners take for granted that it is PRC. Yes, but not enough. To Chinese (or in eyes of East Asians such as Koreans and Japanese), China is not (or not only) a nation state, it is much more a civilizational state at conceptual level, as Martin Jacques rightly pointed out not long ago among the first serious recognitions coming from westerners. CCP, alongside with any other Chinese governments in whichever forms or names in history, is more taken as current guardian of 5000-year-old Chinese civilization than merely a civil servant in contemporary Western layout. In your plain wording, yes, it might show sob syndrome from time to time, but it is our sob, oke?
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Secondly, having comprehended above notion to a certain extent, you might want to ask yourselves a more serious question that why there are so many Chinese, whoever they are, whatever they do and whichever countries they live, have taken it so personally, when facing some bias or even slightly bias western reports on CCP, Tibet, Olympics rally, Xingjiang, etc., remember?
Or why Mao’s worst mistakes still kept the people unshaken, and united? Or why even the beginning slogan of 89 stud movement was anti-corruption, not western democracy? …
There are profound cultural factors in it rather than skin-deep “feverish nationalism”, “paid-to-demonstrate” or “brainwashed”. Panda can’t believe it that no DT blogger has a damn clue on it!
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Now when the guardian wants to hold a serious national ceremony, to celebrate a phase in its contribution to the civilizational progress, its foremost and only aim will be to showcase or brag about (either way a ceremony) to its people and the world what it has done for them so far as the civilization guardian, rather than an all-out street parties.
What, you think this is St Patrick’s Day Parade or Munich Beer Festival?
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It is a ceremonial parade(with sensitive millitary hardware on display), NOT a rock-’n-roll party in essence! Or it that still a rocket science for you at this stage?
In terms of seriousness and formality, this kind of parade ceremony is more akin to the main part of your Queen’s wedding ceremony, if Panda is forced give a bit similar analogy, which was held in a guarded church with a selected few participants and live TV broadcast to all. Isn’t that so irrational?
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Now Peter Foster must also ask in a straight face that why he or any of 7 million Londoners can’t be allowed into that church at their will, to give the Queen a big hug and have some freestyle Morris Dancing thereafter together with her Majesty to celebrate? Hey, it’s a national feast after all? Doesn’t this show the exact fragility of the social contract between English people and their Queen?
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If you think the answers of above questions are “of course no”, then try to imagine that church was Bird Nest of BJ 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony, and try to imagine that church is Tiananmen Square on Oct 1st!
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Panda has to complain that this new comment format of DT is the most pathetic one I have ever come across!
2/5 of the page is kept blank permanently! And ant-like tiny font packed into the remaining self-imposed area. I have to do my own format editing if I write more than 3 paragraphs every time!
Why dimwits such as Shane Richmond and other tech editors of DT still not fired??
I have already dramatically reduced my comments here since this retard new format came in place. Not that more even in China blogs if the current situation continues.
Go say something to your boss, will you, Peter?


Mark A on Sep 22nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm

In the past, this sort of national day celebration combined with propaganda bombardament can raise waves of patriotic emotions among a very large section of Chinese people. But that day has gone, and the Party knows it. Today, however, it serves two very different purposes: one is to demonstrate to both domestic and outside audiences the Party is still in power, it has all the modern millitary hardwares to keep the Party in power, at least for a while. The second one is to benefit the incumbent top leader (Hu in this case) to gain more control millitarily. Hu is said to be personally in charge over the millitary parade, you may expect some promotion inside millitary afterwards. After all, there is hardly any Chinese general who has real war expeirence in today’s China, therefore millitary parade along with millitary drills provide some milltary personels a chance to show off, and the top leader to find his followers inside millitary.