What’s with all the fireworks?

The New York Times has an interesting piece today on fireworks during the Chinese New Year – about the many accidents across the country in which people are hurt and buildings are burned to the ground.

In recent days errant fireworks have killed two people in Beijing, injured 388 others and started 194 blazes, about twice as many as last year, according to the state media. On the opening night of the holiday, one Beijing hospital treated 85 people with firecracker-related injuries, the majority of them involving eyes.

Across the country the damage to life, limb and property has been no less sobering. During the first 32 hours of the holiday officials tallied nearly 6,000 fires, including a conflagration in Shenyang, the capital of the northeastern province of Liaoning, that engulfed the city’s tallest structure, a five-star hotel.

In the eastern province of Zhejiang, six people were killed in a forest fire that officials say was sparked by carousing villagers. Officials also suspect that fireworks set off the blaze that blackened parts of a historic town in Chongqing and another that consumed a 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple in Fujian Province.

As mentioned in my previous post, people here in Zhejiang are spending thousands of RMB on fireworks – one big box of fireworks that shoots up about 30 blasts can cost 900 RMB each (about $130 USD). The show is not only for enjoyment – it’s also a boast of wealth and prestige. The house across the street from here decorated their doorway and all three apartment floors with big red lanterns. On New Years, incense came wafting out of their house and then a spectacular fireworks display went on for hours – everyone in the neighborhood ducked for cover as sparks cascaded over nearby homes and heads.

My boyfriend’s father, who now lives in Holland and has not been home to China for the last 30 years to celebrate the Lunar New Year, was shocked and awed (truly) by the video I posted here of the fireworks in Qingtian, a town close to the city of Wenzhou on China’s east coast.

The Times interviewed one merchant who pretty much personifies all the business men and women I see here in Zhejiang.

“We’re making so much money, I have no more room in my pockets,” said Li Zhiqiang, one of the salesmen, who bragged that the store brings $4,500 an hour during Chinese New Year. Lest there was any doubt, he pulled out two bricks of cash from his parka and waved them about for effect. “Spring Festival would be humdrum and empty without fireworks,” he said with a wink.

The article also asked why the Chinese so love setting off fireworks during the Lunar New Year – a 13-day holiday in China in which I have endured ear-drum piercing explosions at all hours of the day. The ruckus that I have likened to “being in a war zone” is so intense that cars, parked along the streets, have their alarms sounding off. The reverberating wailing of such alarms can carry on, and on and on, long after the smoke from the firecrackers clear.

The Chinese are hopelessly devoted to fireworks – a 12th-century invention the nation proudly claims as its own. The government tried to ban them in 1993 – but it only led to a flourishing illegal fireworks trade. Finally, five years ago, the ban was lifted in Beijing and more than 200 other cities, according to the Times.

The rules are as follows: Firecrackers may be set off 24 hours a day during the first two days of the holiday and from 7 a.m. to midnight for the 13 days that follow.

The fun, experienced by children and adults alike here in Zhejiang, seems to be the natural high when you light the fuse and then scurry back a few meters away to safety. Plug your ears, find an awning to hide under, and wait.

“Chinese people don’t get a lot of recreation time or a lot of opportunities to just be themselves,” said Ms. Li, a conservation architect and unabashed fan of fireworks. “This is the only chance for them to be totally free and go crazy.”

Just a couple more days and all the craziness is over – will I miss it after it’s all said and done with?