We seem to be stuck in the muck, metaphorically speaking. Western critics of the CCP argue, correctly, that the government needs to do more to end media censorship, enable citizens to pursue legal remedies in court without fear of political reprisal, and to allow true freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion. Chinese defenders counter, with equal validity, that China’s harsher critics in Europe, North America and elsewhere fail to recognize the enormous strides in all areas of development, including especially economically, but also in terms of greater social and political freedoms than was the case for much the 20th century. Steve Chapman writing in the Chicago Tribune encapsulates the debate quite well:
With the opening of the Beijing Olympics, outsiders are putting modern China under a microscope and finding much that is ugly. That perception is accurate but not complete. A full appreciation requires taking in the panorama of Chinese life and history, which may be hard to do in the preoccupation with the host country’s flaws.
There are plenty to choose from. The government is repressive, undemocratic and often brutal. It censors news coverage, imprisons dissidents, restricts religion and maintains a monopoly on political power. So far, the Olympics
Just got back from Tianjin where we we watched the women’s football preliminaries between Argentina/Sweden and China/Canada. The crowd–to put it mildly–was supportive of their countrywomen. I’ve been in Fenway during playoff games with the Yankees and that’s a boisterous crowd on its worst day, but the partisan boosters of the Chinese women’s soccer players were something to behold. I gotta say: the crowd behaved pretty well though Chinese spectators do have a habit of…not quite ‘booing,’ more ‘wooing’ when the other team has the ball. Overall it was an excellent game, a fun time with YJ’s parents, and even though players wilted a bit in the 90 degree heat and high humidity, the match went down to the wire with the Canadian women staving off a final desperate flurry from the Chinese squad as the match closed to a 1-1 draw.
We had a small problem with the hotel in Tianjin. YJ’s mom booked us at the Home Inn (如家饭店）near the family homestead, she called to confirm several times, each time reminding them that I was, after all, a foreigner. Not a problem. Not a problem.
When we got there: problem. We were told Foreigners can’t stay at
YJ is out running around the city as Tianjin’s answer to Brenda Starr, I’m here in The Studio with CCTV on the television, NBC on the Sling Box, and a fridge full of diet coke. I was thinking of wandering out of the hutong to join the madness, but I decided to bunker down and do the multi-television thing. Just so you know, There’s a fair to good sized chance before this whole thing is done I’m going to face “China nationalism” and “Wow, Beijing’s a crazy place” overload and begin drinking scotch heavily, but for the moment at least, let’s do an Opening Ceremony running diary.
6:58 p.m. First things first: Yes, the air today was “not great.” Whether it’s “summer mist” or a “toxic cloud of doom” depends on if you get your news from Xinhua or US local television.
7:02 NBC’s The Today Show kicks off from Beijing where today “What some people are calling ‘the most important moment in modern Chinese history’” will occur. I guess that whole Liberation-Great Leap Forward-Cultural Revolution-Opening and Reform thing was just a warm up act. Good to
Beijing-based artist, Granite Studio friend, and occasional anonymous commentator Helen Couchman has been winging around the world this past month promoting her new book Workers. Last December, Helen snuck onto the construction site for the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube and offered to take the portraits of any worker who wished to have his or her photograph taken. Helen then returned the next week and presented each person she photographed with their own copy of the print to keep. The Australian newspaper The Age this week features an audio slideshow of Helen’s photographs and commentary on her project. Be sure to check it out and congratulations, Helen!
There’s a scene in the movie Animal House, where Dean Wormer informs the Delta Chis that the fraternity has been placed on “double secret probation.” I now know how that feels. There’s been a lot of talk in the pubs and online about what some have dubbed the “No Fun” Olympics. Restaurants and bars are closed, new restrictions put in place, never mind the crackdown on visas which drastically reduced the foreign imprint on the city. It a few of us wondering how these campaigns meshed with the goals of the Olympics, one of which had been to showcase Beijing as a modern, international, and cosmopolitan city.
The answer: Priorities shifted.
Those aspects of Beijing that the resident foreigner population enjoyed the most–the casual funkiness of the rooftop patios and street fairs in Nanluoguxiang, the let-it-all-hang-out vibe of a Sanlitun’r Saturday bacchanal, the mix of cultures from around the world, and the different gatherings and meetings to discuss topics related to China and beyond…
Well, that’s not really part of the plan. It was too casual, too loose, too…dare I say it…fun.
As I wrote yesterday, the Olympics are a chance for the world to come to China, but this time (unlike, say,
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