On the streets of Beijing, the fanfare in honor of the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China is cause to look back to the past and give voice to hopes for the future. Former HAQ Executive Editor Mike Forsythe gives us a firsthand report.

Mike Forsythe is the former Executive Editor of Harvard Asia Quarterly. He is currently enrolled in an intensive Chinese language program at Beijing's Qinghua University.

By most accounts, China's October 1st celebration commemorating 50 years of Communist rule is to be remembered as the party of the century. The central and city governments doled out US$14.2 billion to finance 67 officially sanctioned projects designed to spruce up the nation's capital. The National Day (guoqingjie) celebration itself, off-limits to all but 500,000 invited guests and participants, necessitated the closure of much of central Beijing during the many rehearsals leading up to the gala.

Aside from the well-publicized grumbling over a month of outrageous traffic snarls, what do ordinary residents think of all the hubbub? Is the state-sanctioned hubris matched by a genuine outpouring of pride? No one can answer that question better than those who have experienced the genesis itself ­ those ordinary Beijingers who, to steal a phrase from Dean Acheson, were "present at the creation" ­ the founding of the People's Republic on October 1, 1949. Older residents paint a complex picture. A shopkeeper at "China's MIT," Tsinghua University, while acknowledging the economic accomplishments of the past 20 years, notes that "in 1949 and into the 1950s, people from all classes went to Tiananmen Square on their own accord to celebrate National Day. Except for 1999, nothing compares to those early years." Two elderly ladies, whiling away the day on a park bench at Peking University's "No Name" Lake, view this year's celebration with more enthusiasm. The forty-year Beijing residents, countryside peasants at the time of "liberation" (jiefang) in 1949, are aghast that anyone would even dare to compare 1949 with 1999. "Sure, everyone was happy when the country was liberated," said one of the women, "Chairman Mao let China stand up on its own feet, but the country was extremely poor. Things are so much better now." 

The pride in China's economic accomplishments is nearly universally touted by both young and old, as are China's foreign policy successes. Another shopkeeper, proud that his two children are taking part in Friday's Tiananmen Square activities, reflects that in his 45 years, China has never had a major war. This sentiment is shared by a student from the northern port city of Dalian, who lauded President Jiang Zemin's skill at avoiding conflict with the U.S. during the past several crisis-laden years.

Beijing celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the PRC's founding in style

But younger residents' opinions also reflect the turmoil and resulting cynicism of China's socialist half-century. A boisterous and slightly drunk young accountant proudly proclaims that the country's achievements warrant the first world expenditures that third world China is outlaying. In the same breath, however, he regales his friends with a telling anecdote of just how extensive the government's preparations have been. "The city has been kicking out the prostitutes in anticipation of October 1st," he noted. "As a result, the hookers have been withdrawing their savings from local banks. Rumor has it that they have taken out 300 million renminbi [US$36.2 million] and forced some of the small banks to shut down." A graduate student confessed that he and the majority of his peers could care less about National Day. "The government is wasting a lot of money," he observed. "My friends are generally opposed to such behavior, and the undergraduates are happy only because of the unusually long holiday that accompanies this year's anniversary."

Harvard historian William Kirby observed that in China "public commemorations have begun this year less for the five decades of the PRC than for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the reforms." A small and admittedly unrepresentative sample of young and old Beijingers seems to support his assertion. The expressed sentiment of pride was, with the exception of some foreign policy accomplishments, mostly confined to the post-Mao economic success heralded in by the late Deng Xiaoping in 1978. On the other hand, the cynicism expressed by young people stands in sharp contrast to the nationalistic pomp and circumstance which now dominates radio and television broadcasts.

Perhaps no group of Beijingers is more representative of the Chinese everyman than the niu yang ge dancers. Countless thousands of elderly and middle-aged pensioners spend the better part of their evenings on Beijing sidewalks, dancing to the cacophonous drums and horns that accompany the traditional harvest dance. "Sure, China is prosperous now, and I am happy, but during the Cultural Revolution [1966-76] I had a really good time," noted a fifty-something dancer with a twinkle in his eyes. "Economic prosperity and happiness are not necessarily related."