Big Plans in China for Revolution’s 60th Anniversary
October 1, 2009 will mark the PRC’s 60th anniversary. Major plans are already underway, with such names as Zhang Yimou among those on board. The Los Angeles Times reports on the upcoming event, as well as other politically significant anniversaries in China:
Reporting from Beijing — The Chinese Communist Party loves its anniversaries, so it comes as no surprise that the bosses in Beijing are planning a blowout to commemorate the 60th year since the nation’s founding.
President Hu Jintao has commissioned an extra-stretch limousine, 19 feet long, for the October festivities. A year before the occasion, the Beijing municipality put out advertisements for women between the ages of 17 and 25 (height between 5′3″ and 5′7″) to perform in the parade; rehearsals began in December.
[...]But critics of the Communist Party love anniversaries too, and 2009 is fraught with sensitive ones: Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of an uprising in Tibet that led to the flight of the Dalai Lama to India. On June 4, the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square. And on July 22, the 10th-year anniversary since the banning of the spiritual group called Falun Gong.
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[...] Four anniversaries down, one to go. Then (whisper it) will Zhongnanhai finally tick the last stroke off on it’s giant red [...]