Watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, one could not help but be impressed at the powerful vision, artistry and sheer effort that went into the performance. What the event signified for the new China of the 21st century was more ambiguous, however.
Like Greece in 2004, China—for its own reasons—was deeply hungry for the games; and like Greece, they put their heart and soul into the opening day spectacle. It is in many ways moving to reflect on the symmetries and contrasts of the two ceremonies—the first in the smallest country to host the Olympics in decades, the second in the largest to host ever. Two of the world's oldest and most influential cultures, both China and Greece had much resonant symbolism to draw on in crafting their vision for the day. In Greece, it was millennia of art, philosophy, math and science— and, of course, the history Olympics itself. In China it was the Four Great Inventions—the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing—as well as the legacy of Confucianism, Taoism and China's own vast artistic history.
In their use of technology, both countries outdid their predecessors, but Beijing pushed the effort to a new level, with light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) blanketing the stadium, the centerpiece of which was a 147 meter long screen on the floor that made for a spectacular, rolling scroll under the feet of the performers. But as amazing as it was, multimedia wizardry did not dominate as it might have in the U.S.; without question the most impressive effects of the night were created though a stunning degree of human coordination.
Compare the drum routines at the beginning of the Athens games and then those of Beijing. In Greece, the dominant image was that of two drummers, one in Athens and one in Olympia (ancient home of the games) each communicating, signal-response, across thousands of miles with percussive thumps. In China by contrast, the drum effect was of not two, but 2,008 drummers, all striking in unison with incredible (and some would say intimidating) precision.
Throughout the ceremony the effect of giant-scale choreography continued, through presentations of a “living” movable-type press (composed of 897 performers as individual keys), a large group of men who formed the image of a Chinese junk and rowers, dancers held aloft on strings by hundreds of other performers and a coordinated Tai Chi performance consisting of 2,008 people.
All of this was at once stunning and unnerving—especially in light of China's recent and ancient history of collectivist thinking. Coupled with the propaganda surrounding the evening, the whole event seemed orchestrated to put the best face on what has been an amazing but frequently ugly transformation of the country. The NBC anchors did their best to play along ; one wonders if the Chinese government actually put restrictions on their broadcast or if they were just trying to be polite.
However grand, there was also something disconcerting about parts of the performance, such as the folk dance representing 56 Chinese ethnic groups . Clearly intended to sell viewers on the multiculturalism of China, the dance it had the unintended effect of reminding many of things the Chinese government doesn't want to talk about, such as the situation in Tibet and the continuing cold war with Taiwan.
Most interesting and disturbing, however, was the segment in which schoolchildren chanted poetry and painted a scroll as performers did tai chi around them. Meant to symbolize the “Green Olympics,” the message was (according to the commentators at least) supposed to highlight the importance of environmentalism and of returning to harmony with nature, for the sake of the children's future. Given that the current industrialization of China now creates clouds of pollution that are detectable in California, should we be happy that the government is at least thinking about the environment—or depressed that they appear to be as committed to the public relations of greenwashing as their corporate counterparts in the West are? (I suppose its nice that the fireworks they used in the ceremonies were “low smoke” but how proud should the Chinese government be when by some accounts the Yangtze river will be dead within five years ?)
Overall, the message of the ceremonies seemed to be that China is now an unstoppable force of human ingenuity, technology and will. What happens when that force collides with the immovable objects of resource depletion and environmental degradation is certainly up for debate, but it doesn't take an expert to predict that the results could be ugly and frightening.
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