Can a dragon symbolize the Chinese nation as it pursues its frequently stated aim of a “peaceful rise”? Can it represent a diverse land of 1.3 billion people or several millennia of Chinese history? As China prepares to welcome the lunar Year of the Dragon next week, some are questioning the suitability of the mythical [...]
Can a dragon symbolize the Chinese nation as it pursues its frequently stated aim of a “peaceful rise”?
Can it represent a diverse land of 1.3 billion people or several millennia of Chinese history?
As China prepares to welcome the lunar Year of the Dragon next week, some are questioning the suitability of the mythical beast as an icon of China.
A 20-year debate resurfaced after the issue of Spring Festival, or lunar new year, postage stamps bearing a picture of a fierce-looking dragon.
The stamps went on sale as planned this week, but the official China Daily newspaper tried to rebrand the dragon as a “beast of benevolence.”
“Dragon’s smile is nothing to fear,” said the headline of another story by scholar Zhao Qiguang in the nationalistic Global Times.
The millions of cuddly dragons and graceful, red paper-cut dragons sold nationwide are more in line with the image that the ruling Communist Party wants to project across the world.
Chen Shaohua, the designer of the new year stamp, said he had created “an image portraying dignity, severity and integrity.”
“Dragons can drive out evil spirits and avoid disasters, so we need a tough image to express this,” Chen told.
The dragon is the fifth of the 12 Chinese animal zodiac signs. The animals are linked each year to the ancient binary opposition of yin and yang and to one of the five elements of metal, fire, wood, earth and water. Each individual combination recurs every 60 years.
The water-dragon year is the 29th of each 60-year cycle, and the water element makes 2012 a particularly volatile year, according to astrological lore.
In the last water-dragon year, 1952, the Communist Party waged a “five-anti campaign” against alleged capitalists. Its troops were involved in battles against
Taiwan-based Kuomintang or Nationalist forces over a small island between Taiwan and mainland China and against US and South Korean forces in the Korean War.
Dragon years are seen as auspicious for birth, so maternity hospitals are anticipating a flood of parents who hope their little dragons will achieve great things.
Famous dragons include late kung-fu film star Bruce Lee, popularly known in Chinese as Little Dragon Lee, who was born in 1940. French martyr Joan of Arc,
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, artist Salvador Dali and Beatle John Lennon are other notable dragons.
Hollywood luminaries Raquel Welch, Reese Witherspoon, Matt Dillon, Martin Sheen, Nicolas Cage, Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves were also dragon year babies.
The dragon has symbolized China, the Chinese people and the emperor for thousands of years. Walls of ceramic dragons, still seen in Beijing’s ancient parks and Forbidden City, once screened the imperial household from bad feng shui and the eyes of the Chinese people.
But Zhao Qiguang, a United States-based scholar who has written a book on eastern and western concepts of the dragon, prefers to dwell on its less spectacular qualities, saying the dragon should “radiate the light of the Chinese people to the world.”
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