Wednesday, August 13, 2008
What the Olympics Mean to China
Last Friday night, August 8, the Olympics opened with unparalleled pageantry and spectacle that was so awe inspiring that it took days for me to take it in. Being in the Opening Ceremonies in Atlanta, I was partial. Have to admit it to the Chinese – they definitely trumped us in that act. Excellent!
The media mentioned for over a year that this is China’s coming out party as a newly minted superpower on the world stage. After centuries of isolation and humiliation, China had two governmental revolutions during the twentieth century and a few more cultural ones along the way. During the third quarter of the twentieth century Mao’s teaching and all footage from that country showed everyone wearing the same outfits and moving in unison. Not a country for a non-conformist. They did fulfill two promises: one, to protect and care for the people –especially when it comes to food, and two, to make China respected again.
After Mao, Deng Xiaoping, their new leader, talked with then-President Jimmy Carter and a deal was hammered out where China learns capitalism from the master and Deng is credited for his countries great economic leap forward and started modernizing China. The Chinese learned their lessons so well that we all now buy all our stuff from China and the Chinese in turn buy our government bonds. Yikes! Looks like the teacher needs tutoring lessons from the student.
China wasn’t always the weaken large nation we think of when we watch those old world war two documentaries on the History Channel, they were for centuries the world’s most advanced nation. They invented paper, the printing press, gunpowder, and traded with the Roman Empire. Starting around the nineteenth century, China was starting to be bullied by the European powers of the day and forced to sign deals that heavily favored the west. It was during this time Great Britain “leased” Hong Kong.
To submit to this type of humiliation is something I don’t think many of us in the west can understand. In Asian countries, honor and respect are a pretty big deal. In the movie, “The Last Samurai,” the message that failing was such a great humiliation that living with is was unbearable. Japanese pilots flew their plans into our ships in World War Two and saw giving up their lives as a great honor. This should give you an idea of how bad this dark time was for China and how it scared the national psyche.
The Asians have an expression called, “face” where pride and respect are paramount. They sum it up in two phrases, “Save Face,” and “Lose Face.”
Save face means you do things or things happen to you to cause you to continue or increase your respect for those around you. Think of the skinny little kid in the school yard beating up the bully and becoming the hero. Nice.
Lose face means you lose respect from those around you. In this case, the school yard bully that just had the tar beaten out of him by a kid half his size. Sooner or later, the little kid will have to face the bully again so the bully can get back his respect. If the little kid wins again, the bully loses even more respect and the little kid is king of the playground.
This should give us some idea of why the Olympics are so important to China. This is a chance where they can show the world that the centuries of humiliation are over, China is an economic powerhouse and a superpower in all but name – and the world finally respects them for being so.
The Beijing National Stadium, better known now as, The Bird’s Nest, brought out 2008 drummers beating their drums in a military-like fashion and chants that both filled me with awe and also got the message this is not a group of guys I want to mess with. They were told to smile to not be so scary – it might have lessened it but I still felt intimidated. I’m sure if I was there I’d be running to the bathroom at top speed.
The stage presentations of thousands creating designs that could be seen above showing doves and other designs was a sight to be hold. The most impressive was the printing press they had in the middle of the stadium floor moving showing repeatedly the Chinese characters for harmony. After they were done they showed how they did it – not with machines or computers, but with people! In the words of one of my favorite TV characters, Newt Livingston (Cory in the House), “Awesome!”
The commentators mentioned that the Chinese are very hospitable and they showed it by their cheers for Hong Kong, a city-state they now control competing under a different flag, but what the commentary did not mention was how they cheered for Taiwan, what they referred to as a break-away province, and China seeing it as their own and wanting to control it, this is a big deal. When Mao died, China fell into mourning, Taiwan celebrated like those V-Day Photos we see of World War Two with dancing and kissing in streets. Not exactly a way to greet your neighbor.
As China, the host nation entered the stadium; the crowd erupted into frenzy. They waited since 2001 and they unleashed all that pent up energy to show the nation’s pride. In walked, the flag bearer, basketball proYao Ming, had walking next to him the school boy, 9-year-old Lin Hao from the Sichuan earthquake where he saved two of his classmates because he saw it as his responsibility as a class leader. As soon as he freed himself from the rubble he went back to help his classmates and to keep up their spirits by having them sing songs. The kid was a hall monitor. In China, this responsibility was an honor and he saw it as his duty to his fellow classmates. In America, hall monitors are seen as dorks. This kid is definitely not a dork in my book.
As Li Ning, the 1984 Gold Metal gymnast, lit the caldron, and fireworks lit up the sky it took me back to seeing Mohammed Ali lighting the caldron in Atlanta. Bob Costcas said not all Olympic Opening Ceremonies are like this. Each that I remember seeing is memorable but this one pulled out all the stumps and China has great reason to be proud. Mao and Deng would have been smiling if they were there. Way to go Beijing!
The media mentioned for over a year that this is China’s coming out party as a newly minted superpower on the world stage. After centuries of isolation and humiliation, China had two governmental revolutions during the twentieth century and a few more cultural ones along the way. During the third quarter of the twentieth century Mao’s teaching and all footage from that country showed everyone wearing the same outfits and moving in unison. Not a country for a non-conformist. They did fulfill two promises: one, to protect and care for the people –especially when it comes to food, and two, to make China respected again.
After Mao, Deng Xiaoping, their new leader, talked with then-President Jimmy Carter and a deal was hammered out where China learns capitalism from the master and Deng is credited for his countries great economic leap forward and started modernizing China. The Chinese learned their lessons so well that we all now buy all our stuff from China and the Chinese in turn buy our government bonds. Yikes! Looks like the teacher needs tutoring lessons from the student.
China wasn’t always the weaken large nation we think of when we watch those old world war two documentaries on the History Channel, they were for centuries the world’s most advanced nation. They invented paper, the printing press, gunpowder, and traded with the Roman Empire. Starting around the nineteenth century, China was starting to be bullied by the European powers of the day and forced to sign deals that heavily favored the west. It was during this time Great Britain “leased” Hong Kong.
To submit to this type of humiliation is something I don’t think many of us in the west can understand. In Asian countries, honor and respect are a pretty big deal. In the movie, “The Last Samurai,” the message that failing was such a great humiliation that living with is was unbearable. Japanese pilots flew their plans into our ships in World War Two and saw giving up their lives as a great honor. This should give you an idea of how bad this dark time was for China and how it scared the national psyche.
The Asians have an expression called, “face” where pride and respect are paramount. They sum it up in two phrases, “Save Face,” and “Lose Face.”
Save face means you do things or things happen to you to cause you to continue or increase your respect for those around you. Think of the skinny little kid in the school yard beating up the bully and becoming the hero. Nice.
Lose face means you lose respect from those around you. In this case, the school yard bully that just had the tar beaten out of him by a kid half his size. Sooner or later, the little kid will have to face the bully again so the bully can get back his respect. If the little kid wins again, the bully loses even more respect and the little kid is king of the playground.
This should give us some idea of why the Olympics are so important to China. This is a chance where they can show the world that the centuries of humiliation are over, China is an economic powerhouse and a superpower in all but name – and the world finally respects them for being so.
The Beijing National Stadium, better known now as, The Bird’s Nest, brought out 2008 drummers beating their drums in a military-like fashion and chants that both filled me with awe and also got the message this is not a group of guys I want to mess with. They were told to smile to not be so scary – it might have lessened it but I still felt intimidated. I’m sure if I was there I’d be running to the bathroom at top speed.
The stage presentations of thousands creating designs that could be seen above showing doves and other designs was a sight to be hold. The most impressive was the printing press they had in the middle of the stadium floor moving showing repeatedly the Chinese characters for harmony. After they were done they showed how they did it – not with machines or computers, but with people! In the words of one of my favorite TV characters, Newt Livingston (Cory in the House), “Awesome!”
The commentators mentioned that the Chinese are very hospitable and they showed it by their cheers for Hong Kong, a city-state they now control competing under a different flag, but what the commentary did not mention was how they cheered for Taiwan, what they referred to as a break-away province, and China seeing it as their own and wanting to control it, this is a big deal. When Mao died, China fell into mourning, Taiwan celebrated like those V-Day Photos we see of World War Two with dancing and kissing in streets. Not exactly a way to greet your neighbor.
As China, the host nation entered the stadium; the crowd erupted into frenzy. They waited since 2001 and they unleashed all that pent up energy to show the nation’s pride. In walked, the flag bearer, basketball proYao Ming, had walking next to him the school boy, 9-year-old Lin Hao from the Sichuan earthquake where he saved two of his classmates because he saw it as his responsibility as a class leader. As soon as he freed himself from the rubble he went back to help his classmates and to keep up their spirits by having them sing songs. The kid was a hall monitor. In China, this responsibility was an honor and he saw it as his duty to his fellow classmates. In America, hall monitors are seen as dorks. This kid is definitely not a dork in my book.
As Li Ning, the 1984 Gold Metal gymnast, lit the caldron, and fireworks lit up the sky it took me back to seeing Mohammed Ali lighting the caldron in Atlanta. Bob Costcas said not all Olympic Opening Ceremonies are like this. Each that I remember seeing is memorable but this one pulled out all the stumps and China has great reason to be proud. Mao and Deng would have been smiling if they were there. Way to go Beijing!
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