禁燃烟花 by Wang Siqi
Illustration by: Wang Siqi
TRADITIONAL CULTURE

Ban or Bang? China’s Fireworks Paradox

Why does the land that invented fireworks and firecrackers prohibit them in so many places?

Mr. Huo remembers when the Lunar New Year in Beijing felt like a real festival. In the 1980s and ’90s, Huo, now 56, would set off firecrackers “precisely at midnight on Lunar New Year’s Eve and before lunch on Lunar New Year’s Day,” he tells TWOC. The streets were filled with the bang of pyrotechnics and people out on the streets celebrating. Now, “Without the sound of firecrackers, it feels like something’s missing…like the lively spirit of celebration is gone.”

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