Sylvia Kratzer, the German teacher at Nanchang Univ. took me to the "Bayi Square." Bayi, which appears as the Chinese Characters: "/\ -" means "8.1" or "August 1st" which is signifacant to Modern Chinese History and the Communist Party of China. It was on 8.1.1927 that the "Nanchang Uprising" sealed the defeat of the Kuomintang (nationalists) by the communists. The "People's Liberation Army" was said to be founded on this day. You can see the characters in gold on the flag monument at Bayi square.
The square itself is quite large, with a large concrete and stone obelisk-like monument at the far end. The momument is a classic piece of drab, blocky, communist art. A fitting memento to the birthing of a blocky, drab and cumbersome political movement. Across the street stands a massive former communist building, replete with red star and god trim. The building is now ironically used an electronics market.
The irony of the scene is not lost on me. Here, on this square, one sees the dead, lifeless tombstones of a dated ideology surrounded by those living icons of a different ideology: a KFC, a Wal-Mart Supercenter and the Electronics Market. In this light, I muse over a new interpretation of the soldiers' pained expressions carved in the flag monument's sides: the CCP's new struggle to hold their position in a changing economic and political landscape.
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