INDUSTRIAL TERRACOTTA WARRIORS

The military parade for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China was held on October 1, 2009. It took months of preparation. Over 10,000 troops and all manner of tanks, artillery, missiles, and aircraft processed down the Avenue of Eternal Peace with Chinese Communist Party leaders observing from Tiananmen Gate. The highly coordinated spectacle was one of the largest demonstrations of China’s growing military strength to date, clearly signaling the country’s intentions to take its place amongst the great world powers. The grand symbolic gesture was then immortalized in military museums and theme parks around China, but none more so than the Hengdian National Defense Technology Education Park. It displays an exact replica of every soldier, vehicle, and aircraft that took part in the march. Many of them feature distinguishing features like the Terracotta warriors, which still stand testament to the armies of the first emperor of China to this day. The massive diorama stretches for hundreds of meters and celebrates a militant nationalism that continues to seep into the core of Chinese society. China’s emergence as a world power is seen by the Chinese Communist Party as a reclamation of its rightful status after centuries of humiliation at the hands of the colonial and imperial forces. There is little to stop them now either.