Chinese New Year 2008, Part VI

Here’s the latest video installment in my Chinese New Year saga.

A few things to note.  At the time we were out there the windchill factor was -7° F.  It was so cold I could barely hold the camera steady.  The rumble you hear isn’t wind, it’s explosions.  And when the fireworks go off, the explosions are bouncing off the window of the office building.

Not bad for $25 worth of fireworks. 

I fuckin love it! It would be awesome to be there to see it up close! And so damn loud!

Maybe next time chickenfry should hold the camera while you light fuses. I thought for a second you had blown yourself up.

I fuckin love it! It would be awesome to be there to see it up close! And so damn loud!

Honestly, I keep saying this, but it sounds like a war.  You can’t comprehend how loud that many simultaneous explosions are unless you’re down there in it.  Beijing is a massive city, with a population of something like 17 million people, and all throughout the city, everywhere, people are setting fireworks off at the same time.  The only thing I think could even come remotely close is a war.

That’s a cool video Lee.  Ok, here’s a dumb question.  One of my dogs hates thunder… I think a bunch of dogs do.  What the hell do chinese dogs do for 2 weeks?  Hide under the kitchen table shaking?… or maybe they get used to it.  Anyway… looks pretty friggin cool.  Makes me feel like we’re asleep here in the USA… or half dead or something.  So much for freedom eh?, no one owns anything there so no one gives a shit about damaging anyone’s property, since no one has any?  Maybe?

J.

If I had to guess I’d say that they probably get a little spooked for the first few days, but get used to it.  I know I’ve learned to ignore it.  It’s just a constant stream of one BANG! after the other.

As far as the property goes, every one of those buildings is owned by someone.  PJ O’Rourke described China brilliantly as “top-down capitalism.” Basically everything here is done, as I’ve written about before, using guanxi, the Chinese version of the “good old buy network.” And usually the people with the most guanxi are connected in some way with the communist party.  So while a foreigner like me can have an idea and put it into play, you average Chinese peasant cannot. 

Besides, I think the setting off of fireworks is more a cultural thing than anything else.  This is one of the little gifts the government allows the people in order to keep them happy.  Imagine trying to ban drinking in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day.  So, in a city of nothing but street after street of buildings, there’s not a lot of options as far as other places to set them off.  I haven’t heard a single fire truck or seen anything burning.

It gets back to a point I made in a previous post about unnecessary regulations.  In the US you would NEVER be able to set off fireworks in a city in this manner.  But here they do it constantly for two weeks, and the city hasn’t turned into the Great Chicago Fire.  There is no Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.  So it shows that, while we might all think that being able to set off fireworks in a city is a recipe for disaster, it really isn’t all that big a deal.  I’m sure there were some fires somewhere, and I’m sure that some people have gone to the burn unit.  But that’s the price you pay for having the freedom to do as you please, which in this case is set off fireworks. 

They’ve been doing this for thousands of years.  Gunpowder was invented during the Han Dynasty, a few hundred years before the birth of Jesus.  Fireworks followed shortly afterwards.  The BANG of the explosion is alleged to scare away evil spirits.  So a tradition that’s been happening for 2,000 years would be difficult even for an authoritarian government like China to try and prevent.

Christ almighty...you’ll shoot your eye out, kid…