V-Day parade presents collective will for peace

While the beauty of the season's colors inspired wonderment at Mother Nature's palette and elicited sighs over the transience of such beauty, Thursday's Victory Day commemorations in Beijing provoked dramatically different sentiments.

In the standard Western portrayals, it was China flexing its newly gained military muscles.

To some across the Pacific, as well as immediately next-door, it was proof of China's "increasing assertiveness"; even an attempt to intimidate.