In case you missed it, Chinese CCTV employees Monday celebrated Latern Festival, the 15th or final day of the New Year festivities, in Beijing, by blatantly disregarding a prohibition against setting off fireworks. The result: they set fire to one of their new, though not yet open, 241-room hotels. If the act hadn’t killed someone (it lead directly to the death of a city fireman who died from inhalation) it might have been funny. The event speaks to a lot about China: how authority is dismissed despite China being a country of individuals from a culture shaped by Confucian principle of deference to authority; and how things are changing (CCTV apologized publicly despite the fact that the event was considered sensitive.) As the CNN story points out ordinary folks got as close as they could to snap photos of the disaster in its initial stages. Also, not unusual.
Immediately following the Sichuan earthquake last spring, tourists on day trips from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, captured that disaster on film. Often people posed in front of destroyed buildings. It was a day trip.
A little short of two weeks after May 12, locals, many of whom were still in a state of shock, welcomed this radio reporter and a TV producer. One restaurant would not let us pay for our dinner. They knew what we were doing there and considered our work to be helpful since it would continue to bring attention to their needs.
I’ve attempted to attach what the 2008 fireworks looked like from the 10th floor bay window of my living room near People’s Square in Shanghai. But, unfortunately, the attachment, didn’t meet security guidelines. So, if you really want to see it, shoot me an email and I’ll attach the one and a half minute 33.7MB film and send it to you.