On the eve of this year's National Day, the reporter searched for some special "flag people". Because of some kind of chance or personal obsession, their careers and lives have been inextricably linked with our flag. In the process of their telling that one vivid story, we can feel that there is a kind of power called the spirit of the flag, which is flowing out from their hearts, and injected into our hearts with warmth. In fact, the National Day to see the flag hoisting, is not precisely to find this power?
Wu Mang, 20 years old, has an important task today: to raise the five-star red flag in Tiananmen Square for the 55th anniversary of the National Day of the Chinese People*** and State.
Despite his age, Wu Mang has been serving in the Tiananmen Flag Guard flag class for four years, and is currently the "oldest" flag hoister in the class. He stood upright, a steady pace, movement is dashing and powerful, is in the National Day such a major holiday in the flag-raising task of the best candidates.
But getting to the "best" day was no easy task.
Wu Mang said that when he was first enlisted in the army, the Tiananmen Flag Guard went to the recruiting company to pick people, and the conditions were quite strict, with a brigade picking only four people. When Wu Mang is still immersed in the joy of selection, the grueling special training on the face of the pressure. Standing posture is the first lesson of the basic skills, one stop is four or five hours, the nerve of the soles of the feet for a long time by the pressure, stood him often dizziness.
The flag collection action that must be completed in one fell swoop is jokingly referred to as "chopping the flagpole" because this action requires the right hand to continuously and quickly forcefully "chop" to the flagpole to ensure that the flag will not be scraped away in windy weather, and in 13 to 15 The flag is fully retracted in 13 to 15 "chopping" motions. "We can't let everyone watch us move silently," Wu Mang said with an honest smile, "so when we 'chop' we also have to 'chop' sound, from slow to slow. ' sound, from slow to fast, very rhythmic, so as to give the people a boost."
When first practicing, Wu Mang and his comrades in the flag class hands on the flagpole "cut" out of the bruises, fingertips are also worn on the flag surface, wounds are often a layer of not good and then hurt a layer. "We were training with the flag, that really are all blood dyed." Wu Mang said with a smile.
The most exciting moment in flag-raising is the moment when the flag-raiser spreads the flag diagonally upwards. This action seems simple, but to do a strong stretch, the flag spread, but also a "kung fu work". To grasp the rhythm of the music, make the right direction of force, in addition, the most important thing is to have a strong arm. In order to practice spreading the flag, Wu Mang and the flag class comrades often use ten pounds and twenty pounds of dumbbells continuous swing training, a swing is a whole half day. When they first started practicing, their hands shook so much that they couldn't hold their chopsticks when it was time to eat because of the training.
After all these difficulties are overcome, there is still the psychological quality of this level. With so many pairs of eyes staring at the square, it's not unusual for flag-raisers to be calm. After years of refinement, all of this is now easy for Wu Mang.
Wu Mang said, ascending the flag these years, he watched to see the number of flag-raising a year more than a year, and come to wait for more and more time earlier and earlier, and even some people stay up all night waiting to see the flag-raising. Every time he spread the flag of the moment, can glimpse a flash light up, the heart will surge a burst of pride and moved.
"Every time the flag is raised, no matter how many people in the square, immediately quiet down. Once, a group of kindergarten children came to see the flag-raising. When the national anthem was played, the children who were still fooling around were all silent at once, which was very cute. Sometimes, people would spontaneously applaud the moment the flag was raised to the top, which was a particularly touching scene." Wu Mang said that when he saw people love to watch flag-raising more and more and love the national flag more and more, he felt that the pain he suffered during training was nothing. That was his happiest moment.
Peng Guanghan: The five-star red flag was once "brought back from the dead"
This year, the gray-haired Peng Guanghan is 86 years old. On the eve of the founding of new China, the sixth group of the Preparatory Committee for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was responsible for studying and drafting the national flag, national emblem, national anthem, chronicle and capital, etc. Peng Guanghan was the secretary of the sixth group at that time. He remembers that the public call for national flag designs had an extremely strong response, and in just a few days, 2,992 flag designs were received from all over the country.
After two rounds of screening, 38 sets of flag designs were shortlisted, with Zeng Liansong's "Five-Star Flag on Red Ground" design coming in at No. 32. However, in the original design, the largest star with a sickle, axe pattern. At that time, some people thought that this was too similar to the flag of the Soviet Union at that time, and as a sovereign country, our flag design must be independent. So such patterns were rejected.
So people asked Peng Guanghan to report to Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao looked at a few proposals were not very satisfied, so he asked Peng Guanghan: you have been working on this thing, see if there is any good program? Peng Guanghan then said the program "red ground five-star flag".
Chairman Mao considered, or that the "red five-star flag" design is good, and proposed that the meaning of the representative can be changed to "*** under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the people of our country's great unity". This approach was favored by the delegates. In the end, the "five-star flag on red ground" with the sickle and axe removed was selected and became the national flag of the People's Republic of China after it was renamed the "five-star red flag".
Hu Qijun: Electricians have been raising the national flag at Tiananmen Square for 26 years
For more than two decades since the founding of the nation, Tiananmen Square has not had a "professional flag-raiser". The task of raising and lowering the national flag has been the responsibility of the Beijing Power Supply Bureau. The first two years, the power supply bureau workers Chen Hongnian took on this work; since 1951 after 26 years, responsible for the Tiananmen Square to raise and lower the national flag, is the young electrician Hu Qijun.
On the night of September 30, 1951, Hu Qijun suddenly received a notice that he would be responsible for raising the flag from the next day onwards, which made Hu Qijun, who was only 21 years old at the time, very excited. When he got off the night shift that night, it was already more than 3 o'clock, so he simply didn't go home and slept at the Tiananmen Square management office.
Hu Qijun said the flag was raised without the accompaniment of the national anthem, and there was no one to watch, and the flag was not raised every day, but only on holidays and when important foreign heads of state visited, he would be notified to raise the flag.
He always went to Tiananmen Square the day before to collect the flag, and the next day he tied the flag to his bicycle and rode half an hour from his home to Tiananmen Square,
After hoisting the flag, he went back to work as usual. In those days, he estimated the time to raise and lower the flag, unlike today, when the observatory calculates the time precisely to keep the flag and the sun rising and setting at the same time.
Until May 1976, the Beijing garrison troops took over the task of raising and lowering the national flag in Tiananmen Square, making Hu the longest-standing flag-raiser in the city.
Ji Ruxun: the National Museum of China collection of national flags have stories
Ji Ruxun is a research librarian at the National Museum of China, researchers of the history of the flag. In his and his colleagues custody and research of cultural relics, there are nearly a hundred national flag with special historical value. For example, the first five-star red flag of *** and the country, which was hoisted by Chairman Mao himself at the Founding Ceremony, the first five-star red flag of Macau, which was hoisted by the principal of Macau's Haojiang Middle School, Mr. Tou Lan, on Oct. 1, 1949, the first five-star red flag that was brought into space by Chinese-American Wang Ganjun, the first five-star red flag that was hoisted in Antarctica, and so on. The flag, which was assembled by teachers and students of Tibet Middle School with 1999 red scarves, is the largest in the collection.
Ji Ruxun exclaimed that every flag in their collection has a touching story, reflecting the imprint of the times. Though some of the flags are tattered, their experiences may be even more extraordinary. For example, the first five-star red flag raised in Antarctica in the National Museum's collection measures 122 centimeters longitudinally and 145 centimeters horizontally, 47 centimeters less than the standard size. It turns out that even though the flag was sewn from sturdy linen, it was "eaten" 47 centimeters by the ferocious winds.
Han Buxin: Why the flag is so red
Han Buxin, a researcher at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was one of the drafters of the standards for the flag's colors and the device used to hoist it. He and his colleagues once conducted a very interesting study: what kind of red is national flag red?
Han Buxin said that a "description of the flag system" was issued at the time of the founding of New China, which generally stipulated that "the five-star red flag has a red face, a yellow five-pointed star, and a white flagpole sleeve. Because there is no detailed standardization, the colors of the flag vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from batch to batch. For the colors of the flag to develop a unified and detailed standards is a very necessary thing.
The experts first investigated the use of the flag in various places, and found that the red color of the flags sampled varied so much, from orange to purple-red. They then spectrophotometrically measured each of these samples, from which they selected more than 30 candidate colors. Next, the experts began a large-scale survey of public opinion, in order to more accurately understand all walks of life for the flag's color preferences, but also specifically to find people from various ethnic minorities to participate in this work. After these screening results were counted, the experts came up with the best red fabrics of cotton, polyester and silk, as the background and then the evaluation of the five-pointed star yellow choice. After screening, the experts finally came up with the optimal chromaticity values of red and yellow of the three fabrics as the preferred standard chromaticity of the flag, and based on these data, a mandatory national standard for the colors of the flag was formulated with legal authority.
Li Yukun: Ordinary NPC deputies petitioned to formulate a national flag law
Fourteen years ago, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Flag of the People's Republic of China was promulgated and put into effect. Behind this legislation on the national flag, a deputy to the National People's Congress named Li Yukun is credited.
In 1988, Li Yukun to the United States to study, coinciding with the United States National Day, he saw no matter the streets and alleys, big stores and small, everywhere hanging the American flag. And when he returned to his hometown, found in our National Day, such a grand holiday but the whole street can not see a Chinese people **** and the national flag.
October 6, 1988, y moved Li Yukun sent a letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, suggesting that as soon as possible to formulate specific ways to fly the national flag, to strengthen patriotism education, to arouse the people's concept of the country.
Two months later, Li Yukun received a letter of reply, which is also attached to the relevant departments of the State Council to the leadership of the development of the flag law report, which reads: "Li Yukun on behalf of the proposal is very important, our country so far there is no legal basis for flying the flag, the development of this area of the regulations can not be delayed. Suggested by the State Council Legislative Affairs Bureau in conjunction with the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to draft a law or method of flying the national flag". Shortly thereafter, the Draft National Flag Law was put on the agenda. on June 28, 1990, Yang Shangkun, President of the People's Republic of China, issued Decree No. 28, formally promulgating the Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Flag of the People's Republic of China, which was put into effect on Oct. 1 of the same year.
Zhao Xinfeng: National Flag Banner veteran retired from the flag
Since the spring of 1989 to join the army to Tiananmen National Flag Banner, Zhao Xinfeng's destiny and this bright red flag has formed an unbreakable bond, and even after he retired from military service, have not left the flag.
April 15, 1991, and the motherland with 41 spring and autumn of the old flagpole glorious "retirement", Zhao Xinfeng and two comrades for it to complete the last lowering of the flag; April 16, 1991, Tiananmen's new flagpole was opened, Zhao Xinfeng and hand-pressed the electric button for it to raise the first red star red flag. On May 1, 1991, "Tiananmen Flag Squad" expanded to "Tiananmen Flag Guard", from the original 3 people to lift the flag ceremony, into a 36 people to lift the flag ceremony, more powerful, more spectacular. Zhao Xinfeng, also became the Tiananmen National Flag Guard flag class of the first squad leader.
In 2001, after retiring from military service, Zhao Xinfeng founded the Beijing Xinfeng Flag Culture Communication Center, which became the first domestic institution specializing in flag education and flag culture communication. He also founded the China National Flag Network and is preparing to create the China National Flag Foundation and the China National Flag Museum. Zhao Xinfeng said: "Promoting the spirit of the national flag will become my lifelong career.