From Unidirectional to Bidirectional: The Reshaping of Symbolic Communication by Youth Behaviors in the Tiananmen Flag-Raising Ceremony

The participation of Chinese youth in the Tiananmen flag-raising ceremony represents a feedback mechanism within the national apparatus for promoting patriotic education. This feedback is evidenced not only by the frequent choices of young people to wake up early or forgo sleep during public holidays to secure front-row positions at the ceremony but also by their practice of uploading personal videos of the event to social media platforms. As a symbolic act, the flag-raising ceremony conveys profound meanings of state authority, historical legacy, and national identity. For the youth, it is not merely a recurring ritual but an emotional expression of their connection to the nation, society, and collective heritage. Within the framework of the Interaction Ritual Chain theory, the symbolic communication of the flag-raising ceremony has traditionally been perceived as unidirectional, directed from the state to its citizens. However, the widespread dissemination of related VLOGs, videos, and images on social media in recent years has enriched the ceremony’s symbolic significance and created new layers of meaning. When “running at dawn to witness the flag-raising” becomes a behavioral symbol, traditional symbols such as “Tiananmen Square,” “the Five-Star Red Flag,” and “the military’s marching step” evolve into “historical imagery” to a certain extent. Concurrently, the act of running at dawn reflects the youth’s active engagement with and reinterpretation of these symbols within the context of the flag-raising ceremony. This process of reverse symbolic interaction, initiated by youth participation, completes the theoretical framework of the Interaction Ritual Chain by forming a closed loop of symbolic interaction.