-
On Sino-British Cultural Perceptions from
Diana's Death
On 31 August
1997,
Diana, Princess of
Wales
, died as a result of injuries
sustained in a
car accident in the
Pont de l'Alma
road tunnel
in Paris, France.
Royal family
The reaction of the
Royal
Family
to Diana's death caused
unprecedented resentment and
outcry.
They were at their summer residence at
Balmoral Castle
, and their
initial decision
not to return to
London or to mourn more publicly was much
criticised at the time. Their
rigid
adherence
to
protocol
,
and
their
concern
to
care
for
Diana's
grieving
sons,
was
interpreted by some as a
lack of compassion.
In
particular,
the
refusal
of
Buckingham
Palace
to
fly
the
Royal
Standard
at
half-mast
provoked angry headlines in
newspapers.
[33]
asked
The
Sun
.
The
Palace's
stance
was
one
of
royal
protocol:
no
flag
could
fly
over
Buckingham Palace, as the Royal
Standard is only flown when the Queen is in
residence,
and
the
Queen
was
then
in
Scotland.
Furthermore,
the
Royal
Standard
never
flies
at
half-mast
as
it
is
the
Sovereign's
flag
and
there
is
never
a
dead
Sovereign
(the
new
monarch
immediately succeeds
his or
her predecessor).
Finally, as a
compromise, the
Union Flag
was flown instead, at half-mast, as the Queen
left
for
Westminster
Abbey
on
the
day
of
Diana's
funeral.
This
set
a
precedent,
and
Buckingham
Palace
has
subsequently
flown
the
Union
Flag
when
the
Queen
is
not
in
residence.
Public reactions
Over
a
million
people
lined
the
four-
mile
(6
km)
route
from
Kensington
Palace
to
Westminster Abbey
. Outside
the Abbey and in
Hyde Park
crowds watched and listened to
proceedings
on
giant
outdoor
screens
and
huge
speakers
as
guests
filed
in,
including
representatives
of
the
many
charities
of
which
Diana
was
patron.
Notable
attendants
included
Hillary
Rodham
Clinton
;
Bernadette
Chirac
,
wife
of
the
French
President,
Jacques
Chirac
;
and
other
celebrities,
including
Italian
tenor
Luciano
Pavarotti
and
Diana's
good
friends
singers
George
Michael
and
Elton
John
–
the
latter
performed
a
rewritten
version
of
his
song,
Candle
in
the
Wind
that
was
dedicated
to
her.
[35]
The
service was televised
live around the world.
Protocol
was
disregarded
when
the
guests
applauded
the
speech
by
Diana's
younger
brother
Earl Spencer
, who strongly
criticised the press and indirectly criticised the
Royal
Family for their treatment of
her. The funeral is estimated to have been watched
by 31.5
million viewers in Britain.
Precise calculation of the worldwide audience is
not possible.
[37]
After the end
of the
ceremony, the
coffin was
driven
to
Althorp in
a
Daimler
hearse.
[38]
Mourners cast flowers at the funeral
procession for almost the entire length of its
journey
and vehicles even stopped on
the opposite carriageway of the
M1
motorway
as the cars
passed
on the route to
Althorp
. In
a private ceremony, Diana was buried on the
Althorp
estate
on
an island in the middle of a lake. In her casket,
she wears a black
Catherine
Walker
dress
and
is
clutching
a
rosary
in
her
hands.
A
visitors'
centre
is
open
during
summer months,
allowing visitors to see an exhibition about her
and to walk around the
lake. All
profits made are donated to the
Diana,
Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
.
During the four weeks following her
funeral, the overall suicide
rate
in England and Wales
rose
by
17%
and
cases
of
deliberate
self
harm
by
44.3%,
compared
with
the
average
reported
for
that
period
in
the
four
previous
years.
Researchers
suggest
that
this
was
caused by the
identification
most
similar
to
Diana:
women
aged
25
to
44,
whose
suicide
rate
increased
by
over
45%.
[40]
In the years after her death, interest
in the life of Diana has remained high. As a
temporary
memorial, the public co-opted
the
Flamme de la Liberté
(
Flame of Liberty
), a
monument
near the Alma Tunnel, and
related to the French donation of the
Statue of Liberty
to the
United States. The messages of
condolence have since been removed, and its use as
a
Diana memorial has discontinued,
though visitors still leave messages at the site
in her
memory. A permanent memorial,
the
Diana, Princess
of Wales
Memorial Fountain
was
opened in Hyde Park in London on 6 July
2004.
Hysteria after Diana's death: A
myth or reality?
Ten
years
ago,
she
was
known
as
the
people's
princess.
But
as
the
world
gathers
to
remember Diana Spencer on the 10th
anniversary of her death, there are some who can
only remember a people's embarrassment.
Are they being fair?
The mass hysteria
that captivated people when she died in a Paris
tunnel car-crash has
considerably died
down. Now some some Brits are
looking
back at that time
as
a
rare
moment of
overreaction, going against the typical aloof
behaviour they are known for.
diary,
The
Guardian
about the mountain of flowers,
teddy
bears, and free-flow of tears
outside the palace gates.
Sociologists
have several theories on why the masses gathered
not only for Diana's death
but continue
to gather for others whose lives are cut short.
The term
is now part of the lexicon of
public grief.
Although it was
remarkable to see at the time of Diana's death,
public displays of grief are
not so
extraordinary anymore. In North America, it is
typical to drive by impromptu shrines
by the side of the road, created to
mark the spot of fatal car accidents.
People will often even attend memorials
of perfect strangers or send notes of sympathy to
their families though they have no
connection to their death.
In another
10 years, these public displays will be so
commonplace, they won't even be
worth
thinking about, says one pop-culture academic.
Dr. Jennifer Brayton, a media and
culture expert at Ryerson University, said she
expects
to see a similar display of
mourning at Diana's memorial on Friday, much like
the recent
milestone anniversary or
Elvis' death brought thousands of people to
Graceland.
.
people showing up at
memorials.
Diana had qualities that her
devotees related to, continued Brayton. She was
the mother
of two children, she was
unhappy with her marriage, she didn't get along
with her in-laws,