"It is like brushing my teeth every day": a Chinese boy's obsession with raising the national flag

Record ID: 1434002

  • Title: "It is like brushing my teeth every day": a Chinese boy's obsession with raising the national flag
  • Date: 27th September 2019
  • Summary: FENG THROWING THE FLAG IN AIR AS ANTHEM STARTS TO PLAY FENG SALUTING FENG'S FATHER LOOKING ON VARIOUS OF FENG STANDING IN SALUTE POSE
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2019 09:31
  • Keywords: military flag bearer 70th anniversary Feng Jianhan national day patriotism flag raising Chinese national flag soldiers
  • Location: XI'AN, SHAANXI PROVINCE, CHINA
  • City: XI'AN, SHAANXI PROVINCE, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Human Interest / Brights / Odd News,Society/Social Issues,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA003AYKL45J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Every morning, Feng Jianhan wakes up, puts on his olive-colored army uniform, cap and white satin gloves.
    He goosesteps across his living room, as the national anthem plays in the background, and hoists the Chinese national flag.
    Feng, a nine-year-old boy living in Xi'an, capital of China's northwestern Shaanxi province, has been raising and lowering the flag every day for the last seven years.
    "I have made the raising of the flag and its lowering part of my life, just like brushing my teeth or washing my face, you can't not brush your teeth or wash your face," said Feng, "Raising the flag is the same to me".
    What may have started as a toddler's harmless vanity to want to look cool in front of his friends, has turned into a boy's dream to become a real soldier and national flag bearer.
    "I asked him later (why he liked raising the flag), he just thought they looked cool and handsome, so he wanted to show off to other kids...But as he grew up, I started to tell him why we need to raise the flag, what's the meaning behind, and what the national flag stands for. I gradually taught him the real meaning of flag raising, and then he finally realised that it is not just for fun," said his father Feng Xie.
    In the beginning, Xie said, his son didn't have a uniform, just a flag on a stick.
    By the time he was 2, Jianhan started wanting to do his own flag raising. He had seen the videos and wanted a big flag, a pulley system to pull on, and the official uniform, posing a real challenge for his working-class parents. There wasn't a readily available place to buy a national flag, much less an army uniform.
    But slowly it all came together.
    The uniform material came from bedding sold at an army surplus market; the flag, through a specialised flag seller, and the pulley system from a construction supplies store.
    "I am going to watch the anniversary parade very carefully this year, and learn some new moves from them," said Feng. "My dream is to become a national flag bearer."
    A massive military parade is due to take place in Beijing next Tuesday (October 1) when China celebrates its 70th National Day.
    (Production: Irene Wang, Phyllis Xu)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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