Firecracker booms rocked urban Beijing with bright flashes
during this year's Chinese
Lunar New Year holiday, challenging the city's 12-year-old ban
on the festival but often dangerous explosives.
Even within the second ringroad -- the innermost areas of
Beijing's city proper, cracks are constantly heard created by
unidentified passers-by, though posters reading "firecrackers
forbidden" are seen in nearly every street.
Most Beijingers seem quite used to such open defiance which is
seen nearly every year since firecrackers were first banned in
1993.
This year, however, the city put a special office in charge of
the firecracker ban and expanded the banned areas beyond the fifth
ring road into some densely inhabited areas on the outskirts.
Prior to the holiday, the office sent a short message to cell
phone subscribers to remind them of the firecracker ban.
On Tuesday, the Chinese New Year's Eve, Beijing police sent
130,000 policemen, market regulators and volunteers to patrol the
urban streets, but firecrackers were still constantly heard,
particularly on the fourth and fifth ring roads.
"We stepped up publicity work weeks before the holiday and it
worked to some extent," said Vice Mayor Ji Lin. But still, he
admitted some areas were "out of control".
Some residents had bought firecrackers from rural markets
beforehand and boldly lit them when they heard others were doing
the same.
Booms of firecrackers mark the passing of the old year, or
guonian as the Chinese call it, said Mr. Meng, a
middle-aged man who is firmly against the ban. "That's the
tradition handed down from generation to generation," he said.
Meng confessed he led his family to light firecrackers in his
downtown community on the eve of the Chinese New Year because he
"used to do the same every year as a child".
Even a lawyer set off firecrackers in his downtown community in
Dongzhimen, where the explosive is strictly banned.
"Childhood memories still cling to me and I cannot help lighting
firecrackers to celebrate the family festival and particularly to
make my son happy," said Wang Xiaohui, 37, who has been an attorney
in Beijing for 15 years.
"The Chinese New Year in the traditional sense is a carnival,"
said Zheng Yimin, vice chairman of China Federation of Literary and
Art Circles. "With firecrackers banned, the festival is far less
joyous."
With increasing popularity of western holidays in China, the
country's biggest family-reunion festival is gradually out of favor
among urban Chinese, said Zheng.
Though Beijing's lawmakers deliberated the residents' call for
removal of the firecracker ban during their annual session in
2004,the local legislature eventually upheld the ban on safety
grounds.
This year alone, the firecracker ban office told Xinhua on
Saturday that 53 Beijingers were injured by firecrackers on New
Year's Eve on Tuesday as they set off firecrackers.
Two leading downtown hospitals, Tongren and Jishuitan,
received19 people injured by firecrackers during the most festive
hours between 6:00?PM Tuesday and 1:00?AM Wednesday. Only
two of them were hurt in the suburbs where firecrackers are
allowed. The number of injured is more or less the same as last
year.
But the good news is the city's firemen put out 99 fires set by
firecrackers on New Year's Eve, down 36 percent from last year,
said a spokesman from the firecracker ban office.
"It is dangerous to light firecrackers but we cannot ban
everything that is dangerous -- we cannot ban cars and buses to
avoid traffic accidents for example," said Zhang Zhongli, an
attorney with Beijing Jiacheng Law Firm.
And his view is echoed by many Chinese.
Responding to residents' calls, 105 Chinese cities have removed
the firecracker ban, including the largest city Shanghai.
Some lawmakers in Beijing also consider easing the ban in
certain urban areas and Beijingers are having their fingers crossed
for more personalized amendments to the regional law.
But for the Beijing government, how to balance between the
nation's love for traditions and arm of the law remains a hard nut
to crack.
(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2005)