Last night I watched large chunks of the dazzling 4-hour Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. I was dazzled by the 2008 drummers playing on their strobing lighted Fou drums in perfect synchronicity. I was dazzled by the 2008 oscillating man-powered blocks, the 2008 tai chi masters, the calligraphy dancers, the flying acrobats, and the countless fireworks. In fact, the sheer scale of it all was dazzlingly frightening.
I started watching the ceremony sort of happy for China. I know how much energy and hope have gone into this Olympics. And same as how I don’t want to be judged by the actions of the US government, I refuse to begrudge the Chinese people for their government’s handling of Darfur and Tibet. In fact, it is in the Chinese people’s interest that I worry about the government’s human rights record. The whole “harmonious society” theme that the ceremony emphasized is chilling because China’s methods of achieving it involve jailing dissidents and restricting the freedoms of their citizens. It’s only harmonious if everyone follows the sheet music as composed by the Communist Party.
By the end of the ceremony, I felt sort of sick inside, imagining all of the effort and money that China spent in order to dazzle me and the world with inherently cheesy Peter Pan theatrics. What did it all mean, anyway? The opening ceremony is meant to honor the athletes and the universal spirit of competition, not laud the achievements of the host country. The final touch bearer, a former Chinese gymnast, was lifted high into the air to circle around the Bird Nest’s upper rim and then dramatically ignite the Olympic cauldron. Dazzling, yes…
…but it didn’t beat the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, when Muhummad Ali lit the Olympic Flame. I’ll never forget the roar of the crowd upon seeing Ali receive the final torch, and this great man, this principled man who had thrown his Olympic Gold Medal in a river after being refused service in a “whites-only” restaurant, this man of legendary might, athleticism, and skill, he stood there fiercely with the torch raised over his head twice and he shook with Parkinsons. It was such a powerful sight, indelible in my brain and in my heart.
