Members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) honor guard in charge of Tuesday’s National Day flag-raising ceremony in Tian'anmen Square in the Chinese capital Beijing said they were proud of their work, and would strive to do better with hard training.
During the ceremony, held to mark the 75th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese national flag was escorted and raised by a 96-member honor guard.
"The national flag represents the sovereignty of our country. I am especially proud to be able to raise the most special national flag of our motherland at Tiananmen Square," said Han Chao, one of the honor guards.
"To be able to stand at the base and unfurl the national flag, that is the moment that makes all my sacrifice and trainings worthwhile. What I carried was not just a flag. It is a symbol of the faith of the people and the hope of the nation," said another guard Zhang Wei.
The honor guard is responsible for dawn flag-raising ceremonies all year, not just on National Day, and are used to adapting their wake-up times to different times of year.
"The earliest flag raising time in the summer is 4:45, and we have to do a series of preparations ahead of the ceremony, such as uniform preparation and warm-up drills, so the earliest wake-up time for us is 3:20 in the morning," said Zhang Tianlong, captain of the flag-raising honor guard.
Han told reporters that becoming a member of the honor guard was his childhood dream, so he joined the PLA after graduating from college and, after a full year of hard training, he is now marching in the front row of the formation.
"Being in the front row, even the slightest difference in speed from the others will be very noticeable to the audience, so I have to train extra hard to make sure I can keep my every move the way it should be," said Han.
The weather is another major challenge, in addition to the irregular schedule and high pressure.
"I still remember the downpour the other day. There were purple lightning bolts in the sky and the gale made me, then a new member, very nervous even before we left the gate of the Tian'anmen Rostrum. Some experienced comrades encouraged us, and we successfully completed the task that day. Days later, an online influencer drew a picture of us walking along Chang'an Avenue under purple lightning. The comments on social media all said that the PLA soldiers and the flag-raising honor guard looked really handsome," said flag-raising honor guard member Liu Changfeng.
Honor guard members share their pride at raising national flag in Tian'anmen Square
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
