We are all son, we all are.
These words came to mind as my family and I watched portions of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, especially the opening drum scene. I first have to say that I am totally impressed with what I saw and I don't think the world has ever seen anything close to what the Chinese put on last night.
However, Matt Laurer, being diplomatic as ever, said something to the effect of "this may cause viewers to be apprehensive," stating that the drummers were asked to smile, "which takes the edge off and softens it a bit."
Smiling or not, that opening drum scene scared the crap out of me. Poor Charlotte, mouth agape, clung to me in awe and terror. My friend Andrew, who has much more of an idea about the Chinese psyche and their love of the collective over the individual, would probably have more insight into this, but that seemed to be something that China probably loved when they saw it, as 2008 guys did a near perfect stepsing routine.
I see the Sigs doing a mock opening ceremony at Stepsing 09.
Anyway, I think the world collectively held its breath during that routine. I don't want to begrudge the Chinese their history and art, but I felt that most of these opening ceremonies, and ESPECIALLY the drum scene as a statement that both says "Look at how unique and cool we are, we're not as bad as you think," and also saying between the lines, "I just want you to know how strong and intimidating we can be."
I really was thinking that this is the modern equivalent of parading tanks, troops and nukes across Tienanmen (sp) square in front of a huge picture of Mao. I couldn't get that image out of my head. It was simply a more modern and disguised showing of their collective strength and that really scares me.
Discuss.
2 comments:
Spinning Plates,
It totally was China saying, "We're back - after a few centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreigners, the Middle Kingdom is strong again" (confession: I missed the opening drum sequence live, but watched it after I read your post). I think the rest of the world underestimates how important the olympics are to the Chinese national psyche. For some reason the Chinese have got it in their collective mind that by successfully and spectacularly hosting the olympics China can change the world's perception about it - kind of like a nerdy kid in high school throwing a rager hoping that everyone, after seeing him in a new light, will respect him and think he's cool. I've heard they spent like 45 billion $ on this thing, or about 1.5% of their GDP, they've been thinking about hosting since 1908. Prediction 2012 in London gonna look like crap compared with this. No one, no one can organize large masses of people like the Chinese, wouldn't like to be one of those people, but the result is quite breathtaking.
P.S. The Olympics haven't been that interesting since the end of the Cold War. There aren't any great rivalries, nobody you root against, just "friendly competition"; we're now on friendly terms with almost everyone that would be fun to compete against. Bush, justfying his attendance said, the olympics were a sporting competition and shouldn't be political. I totally disagree. The olympics were at their best when they are polititcal think 1980 U.S. Hockey Team, 1936 Jesse Owens in Berlin. No Rivalries, just friendly competition, sounds like the gay games to me.
Most interesting words I would have like to have heard is whatever Bush said to Putin on their row during the opening ceremonies. So surreal. "How that war going Alex?"
Kudos to the secret service for being completely invisible.
It was also good to see George functioning so well as "spectator in chief." He hasn't looked that relaxed and at home in years.
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