TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A video of a flag-raising ceremony for the Taiwan national banner in New York's Chinatown to mark Taiwan's National Day has gone viral on social media.
On Oct. 10, Taiwan's National Day, festivities were held by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (中華會館, CCBA) at 62, Mott Street in New York City's Chinatown. The celebration, which was scaled down due to the pandemic, included Double Ten decorations, a flag-raising in front of the CCBA, a flower presentation ceremony in front of the statue of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) in Columbus Park, and a ceremony in the CCBA Auditorium, according to the association.
At 12 p.m. that day, Reddit user "Future-Violinist-526" captured video of the flag-raising event in front of the CCBA. At the start of the video, a large crowd can be seen gathered in front of the CCBA, which is festooned with multiple American and Taiwan flags, as the "The Star-Spangled Banner" plays.
Two men dressed in black step forward and hold up the Taiwan flag as the Taiwan national anthem plays. Next, the men begin to slowly raise the flag to the top of the building as the national anthem for Taiwan's flag is played.
As the flag rises, it passes a massive vertical Chinese sign that reads, "Long live the Republic of China!" The video closes with the song ending and the flag reaching to the top of a flag pole mounted on the structure's roof, prompting loud applause from the crowd.
Crowd gathers for raising of Taiwan flag in New York Chinatown. (Future-Violinist-526 screenshot)
Although the Reddit user did not post the video on the platform until eight days later on Monday (Oct. 18), the video quickly shot to the top of both the Taiwan and China subreddits, where it received 365,439 upvotes, respectively.
Members of both groups were generally pleased to see the video, but had slightly different takes, with China subreddit members tending to emphasize"free China" more, while Taiwan subreddit members focused more on Taiwan's identity.
Reddit China comments:
"Damn I’m not even American and this makes me proud to be American lol."
"My hometown is Taiwan. My country is ROC (Free China)."
"The real China not fake CCP."
"Maybe they should rename Chinatown as CCP-free Chinatown."
Hurt feelings....
Reddit Taiwan comments:
Taiwan NUMBER ONE
Long live a free Taiwan.
The ROC flag goes really well with the US flag
Viva Taiwan. ROC not so much.
"I go to both the Double Ten Day celebrations run by Chinese and Taiwanese people. Not only do I get free stuff in both events but I think it's important both Chinese and Taiwanese people stress the importance of Taiwan (ROC), even if they celebrate it for different reasons. This way, we all show resolve against a hostile power that would like to undermine the first republic in Asia."
Ceremony in front of Sun Yat-sen statue. (Future-Violinist-526 photo)
