National Day fireworks

I haven't been too regular with my blog. Apologies to those of you who have been checking in so faithfully... I had not expected this page to become so popular! Now it's a challenge to live up to the promise. In my pursuit of cronological accuracy of observations, I am just too far behind catching up, so does chronology matter? No. I'll start with the latest today.

Today is the National Day in China and Hong Kong is celebrating it too: I'm off work today. For all of the Chinese up north, the public holiday is from Oct 1 to Oct 7 to allow citizens home visits and travel. I would not mind that either, but Hong Kong does not go to such extremes, however there will be fireworks tonight at Victoria Harbour.

China's National Day was declared on October 1, 1949 by Mao Zedong by announcing the founding of the People's Republic. Apparently, last year was a very big deal (60th anniversary) with parades in Beijing demonstrating 10,000 troups and military machinery with some 800,000 volunteers controlling the crowds. A historical movie The Founding of a Republic was commissioned for the anniversary.

Speaking of government commissioned, or should I just say, "inspired" movies... A friend from Tbilisi recently posted a link to Red August (2011) Trailer (unofficial) on her Facebook. For quite some time after watching the trailer, I just could not get the old Soviet anecdote out of my mind:

Stalin summoned Maksim Gorky into his office. Puffing on his famous pipe, he said:

- Comrade Gorky, you wrote this very good and successful novel, "The Mother"... What would you say to writing another good and succesful novel, "The Father"?

- Well, Comrade Stalin, I'm too old already... I think someone younger will prove better.

- Well, why don't you try Comrade Gorky? Try... Not every try is a trial, - came Beria's voice from the corner.

For those who can handle the original and appreciate it's uniqueness:

Сталин вызывает к себе Горького:

- Алексей Максимович, вот Вы напысали роман МАТ... так пачему би вам не написать роман АТЭЦ?

- Я бы с радостью, Иосиф Виссарионович, да уже стар стал, может кто из молодых напишет, молодым у нас дорога.

- А ви попытайтесь, Алексей Максимович, попытайтесь, как в народе говорят: "Попытка не пытка", правда, Лаврентий Павлович?

Anyway, this has little to do with the National Day in Hong Kong... But the illustrations do!

Oh, yeah, not less importantly, up north the day was celebrateed not just by some fireworks, but by a lunar probe launch! The news channels capture the event in the following terms:
As part of its ambitious plans to put a man on the moon, China today launched its second unmanned lunar probe to test soft-landing technologies for another mission slated for 2013, the same year when India plans to launch Chandrayaan-II.