Though the traditional Spring Festival holiday season ended two
days ago, debate still rages over whether to allow firecrackers in
big cities' downtown areas during joyous Chinese Lunar New Year
celebrations.
The centuries-old Spring Festival custom in China originated from a
legend. According to the legend, an evil beast named Nian
assault humans every Lunar New Year's Eve household by household
and village by village in ancient times. Eventually, villagers
managed to scare the Nian away by setting off firecrackers,
from which the traditional festival custom evolved nationwide.
However, in recent years firecrackers have been regarded far and
wide as environmentally unfriendly and harmful, as people,
especially children, easily get hurt when setting them off.
Even worse, safety during fireworks production has become a knotty
problem in the country. Numerous fatal accidents have occurred at
fireworks factories in Jiangxi, Liaoning, and Hubei provinces and
the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in recent years.
To
guard against and prevent the occurrence of such casualties, local
governments at various levels have taken a wide range of steps to
slash fireworks production and use. Authorities in Jiangsu and
Guangdong provinces, in particular, have shut down all their
firecraker-making factories, and some big cities have even banned
the lighting of firecrackers mainly in their downtown areas.
But many Chinese would prefer keeping the tradition alive, as they
consider festivals dull and monotonous without the customary
displays. During this Spring Festival, the cracks of fireworks were
more frequently heard in major Chinese cities, even in the downtown
areas, echoing calls in some media for a lifting of the ban.
Statistics show that China is now the largest fireworks producer
and exporter in the world. Boasting more than 600,000 employees,
thousands of firecracker factories in the country turn out 45
million cases a year, with annual output worth 10 billion yuan
(US$1.2 billion). The labor-intensive industry garners 400 million
US dollars in export earnings every year, or about 90 percent of
the world's total trade in fireworks.
In
the wake of disastrous accidents and the closure of factories in
some economically-developed coastal regions, the firecracker
industry has been flourishing over recent years in Liuyang city, in
central-south China's Hunan Province.
A
world leader in fireworks production, Liuyang since 1998 has spent
500 million yuan (US$60.24 million) in technical upgrades for the
sector and closed 10,000 small workshops that failed to comply with
safety criteria.
The city has also drawn up a set of strict standards for access to
fireworks production. It may cost nearly one million yuan
(US$120,480) to launch a firecracker factory in the city, more than
50 percent higher than in neighboring areas. Almost all the money
targets improved production safety.
Three fireworks facilities in the city of Liuyang have each
installed a 120,480-US dollar video monitoring system to supervise
every operation of their workers, according to local industrial
authorities. Awareness of production safety has been well
established in the city's fireworks industry, the authorities
add.
The sector, boasting annual sales of more than 2 billion yuan
(US$241 million), has reported no serious production accidents
since 1998. Now it sells fireworks to 100-odd countries and
regions, with exports accounting for 60 percent of China's
total.
The "Liuyang Pattern" is believed to demonstrate the firecracker
industry is able to operate safely, which may justify the future
resumption of displays in big cities.
Calls for the resumption also come from some celebrities.
Feng Jicai, a prestigious writer and a specialist in Chinese folk
customs, suggests replacing the ban with restrictions on fireworks
and relaxing pollution criteria .
Though some drown every year, people continue to go swimming, and
though auto exhausts pollute the environment much more seriously
than fireworks do, motor vehicles are not banned, Feng argues.
To
satisfy fireworks fans, two cities in central-south China's Henan
Province recently decided to lift the ban on setting off
firecrackers in their downtown areas.
(Xinhua New Agency February 11, 2003)