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Europe |
Eiffel Tower turns red to honor China. Really. |
2004-01-25 |
Check the photos here. The Eiffel Tower turned red to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Saturday, but it might just as well be blushing at the country’s ardent embrace of all things And they remember it well! The parade, sponsored in part by China, included hundreds of Chinese citizens and thousands of Chinese émigrés living in and around Paris. The only things missing, though, were firecrackers, banned for security reasons, and adherents of Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that the Chinese government has banned. The group’s request to join the festivities was denied. No twitch on the surpise meter there. Chalk the Gallic eagerness up to China’s market potential and its emerging role as a strategic node in the multipolar world that both France and China hope will eventually supplant the world’s sole-superpower status quo. "If we want to give a boost to relationships between the "They were just leetle people!" There are other sour notes. France’s Nobel Prize-winning author, Gao Xingjian, whose works have been banned in China, was not invited to the Paris Book Salon, which is featuring a special section on Chinese writers as part of the "Year of China" campaign. Agence France-Presse reported that his editor surmised that Mr. Gao’s glaring absence from the salon was either the result of self-censorship or pressure from the Chinese government. The salon’s organizers could not be reached for comment. "Self-censorship"? Only in France! Ok, maybe in Belgium too. Even EuroDisney is getting into the act: the theme park shunned by so many French citizens as crassly American will be decorated in red and gold and play host to presentations of Chinese calligraphy, kites and the martial art tai chi. And it will still be shunned by the French. The centerpiece of the celebrations is the red-lit Eiffel Tower, one of the rare times the tower has ever been given special lighting and the only time it has ever been lit a single color beside the salmon glow that it has worn nightly since 1985. Fifteen hundred kilowatts of crimson light from three hundred fixtures on and around the structure turned the brown filigree tower ruby-red at 8:10 p.m. Saturday. The performance will be repeated every night from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. until Jan. 29 — long enough to cover Mr. Hu’s visit. The French government runs cultural campaigns honoring many countries, but none have made such a stir. Last year’s "Year of Algeria" passed nearly unnoticed by most French, even though France has millions of Algerian residents or citizens of Algerian descent. "It would have been nice to have seen the Eiffel Tower in green and white with a crescent in the middle," remarked Mohand Abdelkader Madi, president of the Algerian Community Union of Paris. Doesn’t that remark tell you everything you need to know! |
Posted by:Steve White |
#13 Geese SH, Geese. |
Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-25 6:20:17 PM |
#12 Why would we save France? They have no oil. :-) |
Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-25 4:26:04 PM |
#11 Maybe next time we will have to take it away from the IslamoFascicts Maybe next time we'll just let the IslamoFascists keep it. Let the rest of Old Europe spill some blood to save it. |
Posted by: Tom 2004-1-25 4:00:58 PM |
#10 Maybe the French government was just using the event to try out their ideas for new national colors that better suit them. "Oui! Zose blu an' whaht stripes are jus' so 18th century!" |
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm 2004-1-25 2:35:23 PM |
#9 French diplomacy (and by extension, european, or so Villepin wishes) has one main goal, containment of the USA at all prices, and two main axes : its arab policy (Tm) (and all that 's related, appeasement, dictator-cuddling, pretending "Europe's roots are as muslim...", trying for the franco-maghrebians votes, being hostile to Israel, and so on), and its search of counterweights. First counterweight is the "international community" (UN, multilateral orgs, ngo,...), second is China. Being friend with China is Chirac & Villepin's other big strategical objective, and that is not a new one, as it go back to the start of Chirac 's first term. The two clowns believes themselves to be respectively the new De Gaulle, and the new Talleyrand... |
Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-25 12:31:45 PM |
#8 Incredible. There really seems to be an emerging new trend of "reverse imperialism" in which the former colonies of France are now taking over the seat of the empire. I bet Charles the Hammer is spinning in his grave. |
Posted by: Dar 2004-1-25 12:23:38 PM |
#7 ...has ever been lit a single color beside the salmon glow that it has worn nightly since 1985... It glows the color of iron oxide all day long also. The Eiffel Tower is a metaphor for government by the current class of French elite. The Hose recommends that others be wary of adhering to it's structure. |
Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-25 10:59:00 AM |
#6 Eisenhower should of told DeGaulle and LeClerc to get stuffed and let the 2nd Armored take Paris. Maybe next time it will have to take it away from the IslamoFasicts |
Posted by: Cheddarhead 2004-1-25 10:49:21 AM |
#5 "It would have been nice to have seen the Eiffel Tower in green and white with a crescent in the middle, Patience, Mohand, patience. It's coming. |
Posted by: Parabellum 2004-1-25 10:37:37 AM |
#4 They never met a tyrant they never liked. Appalling. |
Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-1-25 9:59:55 AM |
#3 I'll bet they've had those red lights ready for about 87 years. |
Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-25 7:05:23 AM |
#2 yeah i agree, totally lost and seemingly confused,maybe thier gonna try and ally up with China in the future to create some kind of crappy poor mans alliance against the US and U.K.I wouldn't put anything past those sneaky slimey French. |
Posted by: Jon Shep U.K 2004-1-25 6:55:45 AM |
#1 I think it says a lot about the French people (not just the gov't) that they would be so excited to embrace a Chinese communist dictator but they would protest a presidential visit from Bush. The French are lost. |
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-1-25 3:31:56 AM |