Beijing Olympic Spirit...

[golden-earring]

It seems to me that China has never really followed the Olympic Spirit from the get-go when it was announced they would be hosting the games....

My brothers worked at the Athens Olympics....when one of them applied to work at the Beijing ones they were told that China would not be accepting any outsiders to work the Games...it would all be handled by their own citizens. This is not what other countries have done in the past (Russia in the '80s???) and does not smack of the internationalism that the Olympics are known for.

Now China is admitting that some of the fireworks were computer generated, that one of the singers mimed a song, that the participants in the Opening Ceremonies were from the military, and now questions are being raised as to age violations in re some of the gymnasts...

And let's not even visit China's human rights violations with certain countries....


What the ????

I really don't care if China is home to a large part of the population...the IOC royally screwed up in awarding this privilege to China....

[Prokomenos]

Who knows this could all be just rumours to. As for the opening ceremonies being performed by their military personal that would'nt surprise me at all.

[soulitaire]

Hmm I have two friends one from Greece and one from Australia working on the Olympics and they are outsiders ...both worked on/at the Athens Olys too .

The little girl miming to another person's voice , was an unecessary thing to do , its was stupid . Perhaps they view it as what each can do for their country who knows ... (ie the two girls involved) ... and yeh it takes away from the Olympic Spirit ..


I noticed there were mainly men in the opening ceremony too. I personally didnt like watching their military hold the Olympic flag and march it to the front there ... it looked wrong .


On a lighter note, I didnt like what the aussie athletes wore! *ugh* lol

[Ellinas]

Well, I would not say that the Olympic spirit is known for its internationalism, as only Greeks were allowed to participate in the original Olympics. But the modern Olympics are a different issue and I understand what you mean.

As for the human rights violations, I don't think it's much polite by the West to blame China about it, the same moment that the number one violator of human rights worldwide (belongs to the West) hosted the modern Olympics 4 times

[gorgona]

I thought they did a beautiful job with the opening ceremony; however I liked the Athens one better from an artistic standpoint. (But that may or may not be my own bias.)

I did not know that the performers were soldiers. That tinge of uneasiness I had while watching it now makes more sense. I thought that the technology was, of course, amazing. But what unnerved me a little was the robotic precision of the performers. I kept thinking, “Wow, look at that!” And then, “Uh oh, there are 1.3 billion of them!”

The issue with the poor little girl that supposedly wasn’t cute enough to be on stage for her own song was just sad. In response, the Chinese said simply, “It was in the national interest.” That speaks volumes.

Regarding China’s human rights violations, I agree with Ellinas. The US certainly has no right to cast stones. And if we want to hold China accountable, we must hold all countries that do business with China accountable. We won’t protest here (the US) because we like our inexpensive (relatively) goods. China didn’t get to be the economic power it is without any customers. The thing only good thing about bringing the protests to the Olympics is that it casts a light on the hypocrisy of the protesters. (Remember the demonstrator who knocked a person out of his wheel chair to grab the torch in the name of human rights?)

[Prokomenos]

Originally Posted by gorgona
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Regarding China’s human rights violations, I agree with Ellinas. The US certainly has no right to cast stones. And if we want to hold China accountable, we must hold all countries that do business with China accountable. We won’t protest here (the US) because we like our inexpensive (relatively) goods. China didn’t get to be the economic power it is without any customers. The thing only good thing about bringing the protests to the Olympics is that it casts a light on the hypocrisy of the protesters. (Remember the demonstrator who knocked a person out of his wheel chair to grab the torch in the name of human rights?)

Well said gorgona..

[really]

Very interesting reactions, everyone. Prokomenos also said he felt intimidated (if I remember well) by the Opening Ceremony in the other topic (Beijing 2008).

I read there are some military soldiers and some Shaolin monks. Not all are soldiers, and there were other performers who are not soldiers too (women, kids, plenty of them). I find the synchronization marvellous, not robotic at all. It took 2 years to perfect the drum routines, it was just amazing and beautiful to watch, just think of the hard work they have to put in. I am used to see synchronization in movies where students practice kung-fu in schools or monks in temples. Nothing violent there, just physical exercices to keep in shape, they did not have the Olympics there in those times.
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If you look closely at the faces of the drummers, you see that they are young boys and they were smiling all the way during the performances, they truly exude happiness in performing in the Ceremony. The drum performance was actually to show friendship and hospitality to the world. As I said in the other topic, the drummers were chanting a Confucius saying about "Friends have come from afar, how happy we are". Chinese hospitality is based on that saying and is very gracious, deep and sincere. I have read the expression "1.3 billion of them" many times in articles, well, they are, but did they invade other countries? Or are they just hard-working people who sweat in the world's factory to produce cheap goods for everyone else, creating the pollution in their cities instead of the rest of the world, pollution of which international media complain every day ad nauseum before the Olympics even began?

As for the swap with the two little girls, the girl who sang said in an article that she considered herself lucky to have been able to sing. It is a matter of patriotic love, duty and responsibility that even a 7-year old can feel on her own, she wanted the best for her country. We are not used to feelings like that in our modern societies any more. By the way, I read that it was the music director of the ceremony who straightened the record to give her the credit that is due to her when the other girl got so many interviews after the ceremony. I think it is a matter of culture. Standards in Chinese culture are different from what we normally see in Western cultures. I think when judging or criticizing and comparing standards, one can try to put oneself in the other people's mind and try to understand them. After all, these Beijing Olympics are said to encourage the world to know China and China to know the world better.

[really]

By the way, I would just like to add that the reason soldiers carried and hoisted the Olympic flag up is to show respect and honour. They did the same with the Chinese flag, so it is the same respect and honour they are showing to the Olympic flag.

[phoenix]

The chinese Olympic ceremony was no comparison with ours,it did my head in along with many others here as well and no disrespect for the chinese but c'mon guys,if I here another chinese instrument it wont be for a very long time....
I'm still recovering!!!

[really]

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