China's Countdown to Olympic Reality
- From: PaPaPeng <PaPaPeng@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:22:07 GMT
Part 1 of an excellent 5 part report on the Beijing Olympics. The
links to the other 4 parts are given after Part 1.
WAVING THE RED FLAG
China's Countdown to Olympic Reality
By Lothar Gorris and Andreas Lorenz
January 29, 2008
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,531871,00.html
The 2008 Olympic Games will begin in less than 200 days. China, hoping
to present itself to the world as a new superpower, has invested $38
billion in the event. Critics expect a propaganda show, but in China
the games also bring the hope of more openness and freedom.
The countdown to the Beijing Olympics has begun.
A man is standing on a small pedestal in front of the entrance to the
Olympic Tower. He is wearing a grayish-green uniform with a white belt
and black gloves, and he holds two flags in his hands, one red and one
green, which he waves like a circus performer. As comic as he may
look, the man's expression is as stern as that of a soldier in the
People's Liberation Army. A green flag means go, and a red flag means
stop. More often than not, the man is waving the red flag. It turns
out that entering the headquarters of the Beijing Olympic Organizing
Committee isn't as easy as it would seem.
Behind the flag-waving guard, a 19-story glass tower stretches into
the sky at Beijing's Fourth Ring road. The Chinese flag and the
Olympic Committee's flag hang in front of the building, enshrouded
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publication. in the city's notorious smog. Attached to the front of
the building and covering several floors is the emblem of the games, a
running figure on a red background. The lobby is big enough to double
as a small arena, with metal detectors at the entrance, an enormous
reception desk and, next to it, a panel as big as a movie screen
bearing the logos of the Beijing Olympics' 48 partners and sponsors,
companies like McDonald's, China Mobile, General Electric, Bank of
China, VW and Air China. The panel represents a total of €1.5 billion
($2.21 billion) in sponsorship funds. Everything here is gigantic,
everything glitters -- and everything must be under control.
192 More Days
The Olympic Tower is the heart and brain of these games. It houses the
offices of scores of officials deployed by the government sports
committees, the city administration, the state council, the party, the
news agencies and the universities. They expect close to 17,000
athletes and officials from 205 countries. It's their job to organize
302 competitions in 28 different sports. They will be dealing with
more than 20,000 foreign journalists accustomed to receiving answers
to their questions. They put together the schedules for the 100,000
volunteers who will be guiding 500,000 tourists through a foreign
city. They have spent $38 billion (€25.8 billion), built 20 new
competition venues and dug new subway tunnels throughout the city. The
Olympic Tower is where everything comes together. And, if the Chinese
have their way, everything will be perfect.
The only problem is that the world and the Chinese Communist Party
have different notions about what perfect means.
For the Chinese, perfect means dry skies during Beijing's typically
rainy August. It means the absence of smog, taxi drivers who can speak
English, pedestrians not spitting on the sidewalk and hostesses
smiling nonstop. The police are under orders to break up
demonstrations, but they should attract as little attention as
possible in the process. The Chinese want to hear spectators cheering
during the games -- but not too loudly, as it might just evoke
memories of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. And China's athletes must
rake in as many gold medals as possible, but not so many that it
becomes embarrassing for others.
The country that has been ruled by the Communist Party for almost 60
years is supposed to present itself to the world as being an open and
modern place with a proud and liberal-minded society. That's the
biggest challenge of all.
The opening ceremony will happen 192 days after this Tuesday. After
that, it will be Organizing Committee member Deng Yaping's job to make
sure that the athletes -- more than 10,000 strong -- are housed
perfectly, eat perfectly, live perfectly. And that's the easy part of
her job.
Deng, the world's top female table tennis player in the 1990s, is
today the deputy director of the Olympic Village as well as somewhat
of an ambassador for the games. She was the Chinese delegation's
spokeswoman in 2001 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
awarded the 2008 Olympics to China. When China unveiled its logo in
2003, she stood next to Hollywood star Jackie Chan on the stage. She
is as popular in China as football legend David Beckham is in Britain.
She won four gold medals in the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, and
she has been world champion nine times. Five years ago, she was voted
China's Female Athlete of the 20th Century. A member of the IOC since
1997, Deng studied history in Nottingham in England, and then went on
to study economics at Cambridge University. She is currently
completing a doctoral thesis. Her topic: Olympic branding.
Cosmopolitan and elegant, Deng may be all of 1.50 meters (4'11") tall,
but she feels completely up to the job.
.
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