Comments on China

I thought that Helen’s comments responding to the photo’s symbolism from the People’s Republic of China post enriched the original story and wanted to share the remarks. You can view all of the images on Flickr.

Thank you for posting these photos with your intriguing insights on these powerful images that China has displayed with their meticulous, disciplined and organized way. China has demonstrated a different mood by being very proud and showy, rather than being reserved and modest which has been their social norm.

The colors really come from the Chinese opera and their rich ethnic history. (China has 56 ethnic minorities: a rich fabric of diversity that also creates complexity in terms of governance.., of course…)

But, the surprising use of TURQUOISE on military TANKS is worth analyzing!

My theory is: China, even though has gain so much visibility since the Olympics in 2008 and its break neck economic development, it really want to tell the world that it is a friendly nation, not a threat to the world.

Having the female soldiers and male soldiers completely in what I called “gender/ role reversal” hues are another interesting point I’d like to raise: the females wearing military green is an “empowerment for women”, and the males wearing white and deep sky blue is “a sense of duty and “heavenly spirit”, rather than vigor and domination… Wow, what about the even heights of almost every person in this mass display!

Here, without sound, using powerful visual, cultural and employing deep rooted Chinese disciplines like “serving the family, county, being selfless, and work hard for excellence” China is sending a new message of friendship without hiring an enormously expensive global PR firm…