Rockin’ Under the Red Flag

Raising the “Five Star Red Flag” over Tian’anmen Square starts every morning at sunrise.  It only takes two minutes to reach the top, just enough time to sing the National Anthem.  But a lot can happen before sunset.  At 4:30 AM, October 3rd, my longest day in China’s dynamic capital began.  My mission: to see a side of China my eyes had never seen before.

5:05 AM, I’m already in the taxi racing to Tian’anmen.  It was there that Chairman Mao announced the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, 56 years ago this week.  Since then, the flag raising ceremony has been a daily occurrence.  But it takes special significance, and draws significant crowds, on National Day Holiday.  At half pass five, I stepped foot into a crowd of the most excited Chinese people I’d ever seen, before today.

There we all were, staring at an empty pole, the sky getting lighter each moment, the crowd growing bigger every minute- we were packed in the world’s largest plaza.  Parents put wide-eyed, half-awake children on their shoulders.  They were the first ones to see the horizon’s red glow.  Then the lights went out; the star of the show was about to take stage.

The Chinese National Anthem is a proud song, expressing the people’s resolve to stand up against foreign imperialism.  The first word is “Qilai,” Arise!  With chins up and cameras rolling, the fans listened to their favorite song and watched the five star performance.  My eyes were on the crowd, surprised to see an excitement on their faces uncommon in such a crowded city, or such an early hour.  By the time the flag reached the top, I already learned my first lesson: Beijing is center stage for Chinese people’s national pride.  It was now time to go home and take a nap.

I woke up at 11:45 AM, just in time to embark on the day’s next adventure: the 2005 Beijing MIDI Music Festival.  National Day Holiday and a week off class is the perfect time for young Beijingers to camp-out and listen to the best of China’s rising rock scene.  I arrived just in time to see one musician trade his guitar for an electrified erhu, a traditional Chinese violin.  The go-go girls sported the colorful garb of China’s ethnic minority groups.  In a load cry they upstaged the amplifiers with heart riveting mountain folk songs.  The crowd rewarded them with shouts and applause.  This was not a usual rock concert.

Through the afternoon, band after band showed off their unique musical flavor, from jumping punk to head banging industrial.  “Hang On The Box,” Gua Zai Hezi Shang, an all girl band, sang in Chinese and English.  “All you girls come here… All you boys come here…”  They seemed to listen, clustering before the stage, dressed to rock.  Black was the color in vogue for everything except hair.  With hands upraised in the international two fingers, one thumb sign of rock, they sang, shouted and danced.  I couldn’t believe my eyes!

5:50 PM, the sun was starting fall but my Beijing contemporaries’ enthusiasm was only growing.  All of a sudden, one would leap out from the sea of fervent fans, floating on our upraised arms.  Every moment the sky grew darker, and then the stage lights came on.  It was a scene you would expect to see at concerts in America or Europe, until another fan climbed atop the crowd and unfurled the “Five Star Red Flag.”  Shouts!  Red waving above the crowd, the young Beijingers’ words were clear: China rocks!

This day was quickly coming to a close.  In one city, I saw two crowds, two suns, two flags and learned a second lesson.  Rock and Roll is sometimes considered a banner of Western culture.  But Beijing isn’t a city that needs to import culture.  Rather than importing, young Chinese are innovating- with their own contributions enhancing an international movement.  Flag overhead, this sunset concert was an electrifying expression of Chinese people’s national pride in a way that could only happen in Beijing.  Rock on!