As some of you know, my 23 year old son is living and working in Beijing (and in fact I am leaving Monday to go visit him). I thought his comments on the Olympics were insightful and the issues he raised far different than any of the issues I've seen previously discussed.
(This is reproduced w/o his permission, but parents can do that, right?)
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Dad:
probably every radio was tuned in to the live broadcast of the Olympic bidding decision, every television displaying either the Moscow electoral process or the Chinese (allegedly in Moscow) grand bandstand stage awaiting the decision, from about 8:00 until 10:10 last night, when the decision was made. Shouting in the streets & immediate flag-waving (my least favorite part of any celebration) by Chinese & non-Chinese in various stages of drunkenness (I was in Sanlitunr, the foreigner-overloaded bar street in Beijing) proceeded, along with confetti bombs and, not too long later, real fireworks.
I'd wanted Beijing to get the Olympics, but really hate the nationalism of a celebration like what I saw last night, people singing "Arise, Arise" & other chinese "communist" songs. . . July 1st was the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover, but it was also the 80th anniversary of the Party's founding, in a coffee shop in Shanghai. before & after the anniversary TV programs full of nothing but kitsch--a miniseries on Mao & Stalin, half-hour programs devoted to schlocky renditions of the song "Without the Communist Party There Would be No New China"--have and will continue to clutter the airwaves. It all may seem inocuous, but think of a broadcast of a song "Without the Republican Party There'd be No USA." Anyhow, the Communist Leadership must be feeling very good about itself.
I personally see this as a moment of solidarity for the people of Beijing, who can see their city arise as an international center. I understand why Chinese people outside (and inside) of Beijing will focus on China's hosting of the olympics rather than Beijing's hosting (and non-Chinese people, too, where the two are virtually indistinguishable--indistinguishable also from the Chinese average Zhou [that's pronounced Joe: a great pun if you pronounce it right]--as newspapers refer to the Chinese government as Beijing), and they'll see this, with what will probably be next year's entry into the WTO, as China entering the world stage. well this is all good, but I'm just afraid of the crap that will come along with it, the aggressiveness & continued nationalist sentiment among chinese people willing to buy the shit their government sells them.
the difference as I see it between being proud of your city and being proud of your country is that a city can be & usually is a community, whereas a country is just too big.
I had supported Beijing's bid because I wanted to see Beijing become a city that works. you'll see the state of Beijing next week. you'll see the odd kind of disarray it's in, and you'll see how they're trying to clean up the mess. and I think they can do a lot in seven years (I think of how much Chicago cleaned itself up in preparation for the Democratic Convention in '96). but then China has the other side to deal with: Beijing is in a desert and the city is planting grass everywhere, which needs daily watering. to accomodate the athletes and the tourists, they're going to tear down a lot of Beijing's history (which you'll understand as well next week). the ball is already in motion, really, so ultimately I see it as a matter of time: with the olympics, beijing will be a great city (with less history) in ten years. without the olympics, it would take twenty.
the big difference between chicago in '96 and Beijing in '08--aside from the size of the project--is that Chicago has good city planners (though when we get to specifics and your experience with the city's zoning rules, I think you might disagree a little bit) whereas Beijing is muddled with communist corruption, communist thinking (typically failed modernist: a building is a machine for living), and very often learning the wrong things from the west (small shops & newspaper stands are getting torn down; where do these unskilled store-owners go now, and where do I buy my soap and newspaper?) in being convinced that the Asian method is not the method of the future, despite efforts to "prove" the contrary.
so, Dad, those are my mixed feelings about Beijing getting the olympics. you have any thoughts?
(I forgot to mention the whole human rights thing, how some people still believe that by shunning China you can get them to change).
glad your party went so well.
Love, |
