Do you find me WISIBLE?

Er, yes.   I had been anxious for the past few weeks that today's Big Parade would be a rather sinister and depressing affair, but..... well, it was so riotously over-the-top, so unself-consciously kitsch, so downright camp at times, that it was impossible to take it seriously.  The only appropriate response was to smirk and chortle.   Honestly, those soldiers strutting primly by with that - somehow rather mincing - attenuated goose-step.... I'm sure I've seen some of those boys down at Destination (Beijing's most famous gay bar - I wonder if that's Google-able?).  My buddy The Choirboy had no hesitation in pronouncing this "the gayest parade I've ever seen" (I would like to think he meant it as a compliment, at least in a roundabout way).  Confirmation of this implicit theme of celebrating China's homosexuality seemed to come near the end when one of the English-language announcers (both of whom delivered their dire script in a permanently perplexed monotone which seemed to suggest that they were having to sight-read it [very possible - 'state secrets', and all that!] and/or that they couldn't believe what they were being asked to say) referred to "The Tiananmen Gay Towers" (ah, final consonants - hours of fun!).  And did you notice the big rainbow picture at the north end of T square?  Yep, I think one of the designers of this spectacle managed to smuggle in a HUGE gay sub-text, which entirely passed over the heads of the glibly smiling septuagenarians on the rostrum.   Just about the final words of the TV commentary were "another important event that happened on Tiananmen Square".  Oh dear.  Of course, the most important event that's happened there still finds no place in public discourse in this country.  Until it does, it will be impossible to take anything the CCP says or does seriously.