Where the Malan Blooms.
60 Years After the First #Chinese #NuclearBomb.
"Malan, a type of iris, is also the name of China’s only nuclear arms testing base, and 21 was its military unit number. Situated on the northwestern edge of Lop Nur in Xinjiang, it’s named after the eponymous plant common in the arid landscape. The Chinese government formally acknowledged the site in 1987. Since then, the blossoming of the malan has become a euphemism for the Chinese nuclear weapons program, inscribed in military ballads and school plays.
This October 16 marks the 60th anniversary of the testing of the first Chinese nuclear bomb. When my friends and I coiled up our jump ropes and returned to class, we learned inspirational tales about the earliest generation of Chinese nuclear scientists, who left the comfort of home for the northwestern frontier and toiled in anonymity to forge the country’s atomic shield. In the same classrooms and from the same textbooks, we also marveled at our motherland’s vastness and diversity: every inch on the map had been part of China since time immemorial, and the Han majority and all 55 ethnic minorities constituted one big happy family."
https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/china-nuclear-bomb-60-years
#AsianMastodon #China #ChineseHistory #NuclearHistory #WeaponOfMassDestruction #Malan #ChineseMilitaryHistory