[BEIJING 08:OPENING CEREMONY]
Ambrose Aban
Chief Blogger, QueerGam
My friend is hosting a party in San Francisco to celebrate the "coming-out" of China this Friday evening. Seven of his dear queer friends, including me, will be there to watch the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008. On Friday, my friend will be serving chinese dumplings and dim sum. Sounds delish. It's keeping with the Chinese pride theme, everybody likes chinese dumplings and dim sum, and since there will be a variety, there will be something for everyone.
But more than dim sum, or Jet Li, crouching tiger or hidden dragon, on Friday evening, the whole world (including Afghanistan and Iraq) will indeed be watching, through the critical eyes of more than 20,000 foreign journalists and bloggers alike and countless tourists. From the day China won the bid to host the games, it has made no secret of its great expectations for hosting the olympics. China will be judged by how it welcomes the visitors -- and how it handles the various protests that are sure to erupt -- will determine whether others view the Beijing Olympics as a success.
If China is able to make room for peaceful dissent and dialoque, it will have opened up its society that much more, and the Chinese people will be the true winners. Anything less will tarnish whatever Olympic gold that China's athletes achieve. And especially for China, success without honor (no matter how many gold, silver and bronze medals), will be like an unseasoned food, it fills you up but taste no good.
Also, on Friday, China is not just opening its doors for the universe, but also welcoming tens of thousands of senior and experienced journalists. Along with President Hu Jintao's speech "One World, One Dream", signifies a clear intention to make more progressive changes. Chinese people (and Chinese living outside of China) await these changes with pride and anticipation. Also, we all have been waiting -- waiting to be dazzled and mesmerized since Beijing has promised the 2008 Olympics to be the greatest Games ever. For China (and all our Chinese friends) this is a proud moment, a showcase of great social and economic changes that have taken place over the past three decades. No doubt that this will be on display this Friday.
Yet in the mids of the sport and the spectacle, we still expect and we want China to address the serious issues that remain -- building a stable relationship with Taiwan, enabling Tibetan cultural and religious independence, addressing its serious pollution problems, respecting human rights and individual freedoms...not blocking the relevant Internet sites and allowing freedom fighters like Jason Cheek and others like him to cover the games.
And as China is also ready to announce to the world that she is ready to resume economic leadership. And it is telling its own people (and the world) that this leadership has the traditional Mandate of Heaven. If it can fix its own house -- its environmental degradation and disparities of wealth -- it will be China that leads the world in the 21st century.
The number 08.08.08 cannot be overestimated. In Chinese, is it good luck. And triple 8 is great luck. The mythology of these numbers symbolizes not only future prosperity but also a confidence that is self-worth and national pride. Whatever happens on Friday and the 24 days after, it is safe to say that the date is a turning point in this 5,000-plus-year-old culture. No matter who kill who during this Games, the future is positive.
The young people of China are the beginning of a dynasty of their own, with confidence that they will help to change the world on their terms. Fueled by the Internet and a firsthand exposure to the West, they realize that the world of creative ideas is a playground that they are very familiar with.
The next few weeks they will play and compete with the very best, they are honing their skills on the field of international competition. A far cry from being "the sick man of Asia" of the Opium War. They are young people. The Beijing Olympics is the culmination of a long struggle of a nation yearning to be young again.
There will always be others saying the Beijing Olympics will provide strong validation to China's own particularly virulent brand of Maoist totalitarianism. But what often gets missed on all the noise (including from Nancy Pelosi and other polticians and activists) about Beijing boycotts is the process of political change that is already being spurred on by the Olympics. China faces an inescapable catch-22when to comes to their cherished Olympics: they seek the Olympic limelight to showcase China's greatness, but they must pay the price for that limelight in terms of intense pressures for political change.
To ignore these pressures would embarrass China and spoil its big "coming-out" party. Above all, the Oympic Games are forcing one of the world's most rigid systems to change. But hosting great Olympians like American Michael Phelps, Allyson Felix, Gay Tyson, Shawna Johnson, Natalie Coughlin, Ryan Lochte, Paul Hamm, and the other great Olympians around the globe, is an honor for any country, but in the eyes of the government of China, it's more than that -- it's a manifestation of the nation's accession as a world superstate and economic superpower. That's because, despite record of economic growth, China has always been treated coldly by many Western nations that have raised questions regardng her human rights and environmental records, as well as her respect for religious freedoms.
With its $40 billion price tag, the Beijing Olympics 2008 will have a significance that goes beyond world-class athletic competition. The attention of billions will be focused on the striking modernization that has taken place in Beijing and all over China.
As I said earlier, China must make room for peaceful dissent and dialoque in order to open up its society that much more. Anything less will tarnish whatever Olympic gold that China's athletes achieve. But most of all, for China, success in Beijing without honor, (no matter how many gold, silver and bronze medals) is like eating an unseasoned food, it fills you up but taste no good.
Ambrose Aban
Chief Blogger, QueerGam
My friend is hosting a party in San Francisco to celebrate the "coming-out" of China this Friday evening. Seven of his dear queer friends, including me, will be there to watch the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008. On Friday, my friend will be serving chinese dumplings and dim sum. Sounds delish. It's keeping with the Chinese pride theme, everybody likes chinese dumplings and dim sum, and since there will be a variety, there will be something for everyone.
But more than dim sum, or Jet Li, crouching tiger or hidden dragon, on Friday evening, the whole world (including Afghanistan and Iraq) will indeed be watching, through the critical eyes of more than 20,000 foreign journalists and bloggers alike and countless tourists. From the day China won the bid to host the games, it has made no secret of its great expectations for hosting the olympics. China will be judged by how it welcomes the visitors -- and how it handles the various protests that are sure to erupt -- will determine whether others view the Beijing Olympics as a success.
If China is able to make room for peaceful dissent and dialoque, it will have opened up its society that much more, and the Chinese people will be the true winners. Anything less will tarnish whatever Olympic gold that China's athletes achieve. And especially for China, success without honor (no matter how many gold, silver and bronze medals), will be like an unseasoned food, it fills you up but taste no good.
Also, on Friday, China is not just opening its doors for the universe, but also welcoming tens of thousands of senior and experienced journalists. Along with President Hu Jintao's speech "One World, One Dream", signifies a clear intention to make more progressive changes. Chinese people (and Chinese living outside of China) await these changes with pride and anticipation. Also, we all have been waiting -- waiting to be dazzled and mesmerized since Beijing has promised the 2008 Olympics to be the greatest Games ever. For China (and all our Chinese friends) this is a proud moment, a showcase of great social and economic changes that have taken place over the past three decades. No doubt that this will be on display this Friday.
Yet in the mids of the sport and the spectacle, we still expect and we want China to address the serious issues that remain -- building a stable relationship with Taiwan, enabling Tibetan cultural and religious independence, addressing its serious pollution problems, respecting human rights and individual freedoms...not blocking the relevant Internet sites and allowing freedom fighters like Jason Cheek and others like him to cover the games.
And as China is also ready to announce to the world that she is ready to resume economic leadership. And it is telling its own people (and the world) that this leadership has the traditional Mandate of Heaven. If it can fix its own house -- its environmental degradation and disparities of wealth -- it will be China that leads the world in the 21st century.
The number 08.08.08 cannot be overestimated. In Chinese, is it good luck. And triple 8 is great luck. The mythology of these numbers symbolizes not only future prosperity but also a confidence that is self-worth and national pride. Whatever happens on Friday and the 24 days after, it is safe to say that the date is a turning point in this 5,000-plus-year-old culture. No matter who kill who during this Games, the future is positive.
The young people of China are the beginning of a dynasty of their own, with confidence that they will help to change the world on their terms. Fueled by the Internet and a firsthand exposure to the West, they realize that the world of creative ideas is a playground that they are very familiar with.
The next few weeks they will play and compete with the very best, they are honing their skills on the field of international competition. A far cry from being "the sick man of Asia" of the Opium War. They are young people. The Beijing Olympics is the culmination of a long struggle of a nation yearning to be young again.
There will always be others saying the Beijing Olympics will provide strong validation to China's own particularly virulent brand of Maoist totalitarianism. But what often gets missed on all the noise (including from Nancy Pelosi and other polticians and activists) about Beijing boycotts is the process of political change that is already being spurred on by the Olympics. China faces an inescapable catch-22when to comes to their cherished Olympics: they seek the Olympic limelight to showcase China's greatness, but they must pay the price for that limelight in terms of intense pressures for political change.
To ignore these pressures would embarrass China and spoil its big "coming-out" party. Above all, the Oympic Games are forcing one of the world's most rigid systems to change. But hosting great Olympians like American Michael Phelps, Allyson Felix, Gay Tyson, Shawna Johnson, Natalie Coughlin, Ryan Lochte, Paul Hamm, and the other great Olympians around the globe, is an honor for any country, but in the eyes of the government of China, it's more than that -- it's a manifestation of the nation's accession as a world superstate and economic superpower. That's because, despite record of economic growth, China has always been treated coldly by many Western nations that have raised questions regardng her human rights and environmental records, as well as her respect for religious freedoms.
With its $40 billion price tag, the Beijing Olympics 2008 will have a significance that goes beyond world-class athletic competition. The attention of billions will be focused on the striking modernization that has taken place in Beijing and all over China.
As I said earlier, China must make room for peaceful dissent and dialoque in order to open up its society that much more. Anything less will tarnish whatever Olympic gold that China's athletes achieve. But most of all, for China, success in Beijing without honor, (no matter how many gold, silver and bronze medals) is like eating an unseasoned food, it fills you up but taste no good.