Deafening drums, dazzling floats, and auspicious dragons; and, after dark, decorated lanterns bright as day and fireworks flooding the night sky. . . Happy birthday, ROC!
Birthdays are also called by the Chinese the "day of mother's difficulty," the day when, squandering youth's prime, having borne her child through ten months with a bosom full of love and fervor, she suffers life's greatest pain in exchange for a new life.
As 21,000 balloons soar swaying upwards and 24,000 doves open their wings to the sky, do the crowds immersed in all the hubbub below remember the heroes of Wuchang and 1911?
They it was who, squandering youth's impetuousness, bearing defeat ten times with breasts full of love and fervor, suffered innumerable wounds and pain in exchange for the birth of the Republic of China.
The textbooks tell us that they brought us the first republic in Asia. On this day 74 years later, the lens of the photographer adds some random footnotes: a little girl holding her hands over her ears against the noise of the crowd, soldiers striding broadly in rank, a practiced old hand vigorously directing a lion dance, short-haired girl students under orange umbrella-hats, old granddads on hammocks in the park recalling dreams of long ago, and families under the glow of lanterns by the Tamsui floodgate watching fireworks and tightly holding hands. . . .
Republic of China, happy birthday! Heroes of Wuchang and the ten uprisings, we remember you.
