Opinion | With Queen Elizabeth’s death, I finally get it: Britain needs its royal family

A woman who worked for 70 years until her last breath. Her nation, recognising and respecting her selfless dedication and great sense of duty. She was honoured with 10 days of national mourning and a state funeral to be attended by world leaders and celebrities. Who else in the world could have had such a universal impact?

Growing up on communist teachings, I came into a British society with a 1,000-year tradition of royalty and thought it had nothing to do with me. Then, I saw British Prime Minister Liz Truss and a senior group of members of parliament, including former prime minister Theresa May, swear their loyalty to King Charles in a deeply symbolic gesture. That deep-rooted loyalty is hardly different from the patriotism ingrained in Chinese people – both qualities that remain stubbornly with people their whole lives.

In the beginning, I viewed it through the lens of a “class struggle”. I looked up to the British royal family but also felt it was the product of an incomplete revolution – a compromise to democratic republicanism, the highest level of democracy.

This was because I used to see the Russian and French Revolutions as the only role models for social development, even though such black-and-white approaches to eradicating royals were too bloody, violent and radical.