Flag raising is a special bond

I have two sets of photographs documenting my patriotic pilgrimages to see the sunrise flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen Square.

In the first series of photos, taken circa 1989, I am sporting the standard Chinese girl grade school outfit - blue skirt and white shirt uniform set, plus a tightly pulled ponytail. In most of these photos, I am performing the Young Pioneer salute, right hand sharply raised above my forehead, with a grimace on my face. It was not the patriotic posture that I minded, but the awkward combination of white socks and sandals that the Shuangyushu Central Elementary School had forced me to wear.

The second set of photos, taken just last week, looks wildly different. I am wearing a short dress and high heels (more appropriate for dancing at a night club than for attending to my patriotic duty) and, although you can't smell it in the digital image, there is most definitely cigarette smoke in my hair. Instead of uniformed Young Pioneers, I'm surrounded by an eclectic group of friends - a tall blond Texan man, an equally blond Arizonan native, and two culturally and ethnically mixed overseas Chinese. In our hands are plastic cups full of beer and imaginary conductor wands, which we wave about as we loudly warble the national anthem.