Personally I kind of dislike how they’re used in the west. Peak individualism. Everyone goes out and wastes a bunch of money so they can compare economical dick sized with their neighbours in a pointless competition. The novelty is gone after the third boom, and it looks like shit, because nothing is coordinated.
I wish fireworks were only allowed to be used by professionals, and there was a tradition that each neighbourhood pooled its’ money together in order to hire someone to come and do a cool show instead. And then give the kids some tiny bombs so they can run off and have fun with that. But none of the rockets or anything.
How about you?
Look at the real world example of China. Fireworks were invented in pre-revolution China, some hundreds of years ago. China produces around 90% of fireworks in the world, including around 90% of fireworks used in the US.
In the 2010s, China observed that fireworks were a large source of air pollution. By 2018, more than 400 cities across had banned fireworks to combat pollution. When China allows fireworks to be used, critics of China complain about air quality in China. When cities of China banned fireworks, critics of China complained that China was too authoritarian. It’s like the Parenti-quote, the western media will criticize China either way.
In the 2020s, China has begun replacing some firework shows with drone light shows. They have swarms of hundreds of quadcopter-style drones with LED lights, programmed to fly in shapes to mimic the effect of fireworks.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/kindle/2015-02/20/content_19626000.htm
Here’s a new CGTN opinion article about firework bans
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-12-25/Lifting-fireworks-bans-A-balance-of-tradition-safety-and-governance-1Jo5Bj4u4z6/p.html
https://archive.is/ilUp9
Good post.
Yeah, can’t have fireworks in Wuhan anymore, Spring Festival is oddly quiet (to me). Someone will set some off every now and then, ofc, but intermittently.