2008 Olympics – Debunking Myths of China

Before and After the Beijing Olympics: Political Change

tknauss / April 7, 2014May 6, 2015 / Politics

By Tyler Knauss, M. Baker and Cat McNeela

“Olympic Facilities,”
By Tyler Knauss, licensed with CC 2.0

Inside the city of Beijing, the Olympic facilities sit relatively unused since the end of the Games in 2008. Placed strategically in the center of the city, they are now only a place for tourists. For how grand these facilities are, as well as the fact that they are not used and have been largely dormant, it could be argued that these facilities were and are a wasted use of labor and capital for the people of China. Much can be said about whether or not it was the correct move of the world to have allowed the Olympics to be hosted in China. “The Olympics marked the beginning, it can be said, of the ascendance of the stability preservation regime in China. Looking back now, it might be that the Olympics were something [China] did that [it] ought not to have done.”

The Chinese government has used the success of the Olympics, and its ability to gather large pools of capital and resources, to assert itself over its people. Because of the spending power the government has, they are able to exert themselves greatly over the citizens of China and rule over them in a tightly controlled environment. “And he who has wealth speaks loudest,” muses Sun Liping, professor of Sociology at Tsinghua University.

With the Chinese government having so much power, coupled with the fact that it is still a one-party system, there is no room for compromise within the system. It can be said that the Olympics in 2008 were just another factor in strengthening the authority and overall ability of the government to increase their power in China. Because of the success of the 2008 Olympics, the government gained a lot of prestige for China as a whole. This prestige and success of the Olympics allowed the government to receive huge praise for the planning and execution of the games. However, the games brought on great duress to the poorer residents of Beijing. Many people there live in squalor and the funding that went towards the games could have been used to help these residents on a slightly smaller scale, but just as successfully as the Olympics. For the billions spent, the political environment brought on by the Olympics gave no cause to the government to put that money in the hands of the poor, but instead used it to support their own interests in bringing about an impressive display for the whole world to watch.

“Olympic Drummers,” by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs, licensed with CCBY 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
www.armymwr.com
https://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/4927868989/in/photostream/

Before and After the Beijing Olympics: Physical Change

mbaker2 / April 7, 2014May 6, 2015 / Environment, Sports, Urbanization

By M. Baker

When the selection of the city of Beijing as the host city for the 2008 Olympics was announced on July 13, 2001, it sparked a wave of excitement across China and marked a new period of change for the city. This period of change before the 2008 Olympics transformed the city in many ways, but perhaps the biggest changes for the city came in the form of a transformed skyline and new infrastructure.

Prior to the selection of Beijing as an Olympic host city, the physical landscape of Beijing was similar to many other cities across China. Buildings were either old holdovers from dynasties past or distinctly utilitarian high-rises built in the communist era when waste and extravagance was severely frowned upon. These communist-era buildings were often bland and made of brick or stone or other cheap materials.

For the Beijing Olympics, government officials strove to present Beijing as a truly international city. In order to fulfill this goal, Chinese government officials embarked on a huge campaign to change the landscape of Beijing in several ways. First, they set about improving the overall infrastructure of the city: hundreds of miles of subway lines were added, the airport was expanded and updated, and new facilities for the Olympics were built, including the Water Cube and the famous Bird’s Nest Stadium.

Next, the Chinese government decided to preserve—at least artificially—some distinctly Chinese structures from the pre-communist era as a tribute the China’s past. This move was vastly different from the previous actions of the government in the communist era, who tended to emphasize progress over cultural history—see the Cultural Revolution.

Finally, new development and architectural innovation was strongly encouraged as China attempted to turn Beijing into a truly international city akin to New York, London, or Paris. Buildings were made to impress and show “face” for China: the new National Theatre, the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the Water Cube, and the CCTV building are all examples of this new age of Chinese architecture that came about because of the preparations for the 2008 Olympics.

The Beijing National Stadium, a.k.a. “the Bird’s Nest” during the Olympic Ceremonies, 2008.
(“国家体育场,” by 老黄瓜/nPhoto.net/licensed with CCBY 2.0)

Overall, Beijing was radically transformed physically for the Olympics. These changes have had a lasting impact on Beijing, particularly because of the new infrastructure and new skyline filled with modern, architecturally distinct buildings. However, some argue that the changes made for the Olympics have not done much for the city. In an article for The New York Times, Michael Wines details how the flagship stadiums built for the Olympics stand mostly empty four years later: “By most accounts, the vendors hawking trinkets outside the stadium outnumber the foreigners who go there to gawk.”

On the other hand, most residents of Beijing had positive feelings for the changes brought about because of the Olympics: even Grandma Gao, a woman who had previously lived in a hutong village within Beijing and was forcibly relocated to make room for the new National Stadium, reported that her life had “changed for the better”.

The changes brought about by the Olympics have drastically transformed Beijing, even years after the Olympics. While the urgency for such change has slowed, today Beijing continues to change its landscape in its continuing quest to present the best “face” to the world.

A look at the different periods of architecture in China, mixed together: in the foreground, Communist high-rises are visible, with the Imperial Forbidden City in the middle, and the new, architecturally distinct skyscrapers in the background.
(“View of Beijing, China,” by ahenobarbus/Flickr/licensed with CC BY 2.0)

Is the Cost Too High for Chinese Olympians?

jsantini / November 29, 2012May 6, 2015 / Sports

By A. Nichols

Views of China vary. Some think of a repressive, Communist country that is the world’s greatest threat to Democracy. Others still will think of an innovative nation that will lead the world into an age of utopian socialism. The Chinese PRC knew, as well as any other government knows, a large part of a country’s reputation is linked with its athletic reputation, and the Olympics are respected as the pinnacle of athletic events. To host the game is to give the entire world an inside and personal view of your country. Every success and downfall will be well-documented and praised by the press, the greatest opinion-changing machine in the world. Why were the Chinese so intent on hosting? According to Xu Guoqi, “The Chinese have become obsessed with their country’s international status. For the Chinese, sporting events represent something deep and fundamental, validation into the league of nations.”[1]

An NBA player will spend up to four months a year on the road. This pales in comparison to most Chinese training regimes. According to the documentary China Rises , Xiao Sha, a fourteen year-old Junior Olympic Gymnast has seen her family only once in the past three years, so as not to be distracted from her training. Sadly, Xiao Sha did not make the London Olympic team and is now, as far as any documentation, outside the world of gymnastics. How sad that a country would take the best and most formative years of a child’s life and then, after they have wrung every drop of potential out of her, leave her on the streets. She was then unable to compete with her peers because she did not have the opportunity to go to school. Synchronized diver Wu Minxia was kept ignorant of the death of her grandparents and her mother’s battle with breast cancer. According to her father, “Wu had a premonition, and she called us asking if she was okay. We had to lie; ‘everything’s okay.”[2] The reason for this hurtful lie was simple: Wu’s family and the government did not want her to lose focus on her training. This is the mental and emotional abuse that Chinese Olympic athletes have to endure.

Chinese athletes also suffer from physical abuse. “The women are literally beaten into submission,’ Johannah Doecke, diving coach at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in the United States, told Reuters. ‘If you said no to anything, you would be chastised, slapped around. It’s a brutal system.”[3] Chinese coaches and athletes do choose to focus and defend the necessity of their actions. Chinese Diver Chen Ni spoke to the necessity of physical abuse: “Most of the time, coaches care about their divers even more than their own children. Thus, as parents they have to force their children to do things safely… Sometimes they hit their divers.”[3] China is a great nation, if only they would have more confidence in their international image. Maybe then, they would cease the terrible human-rights abuses that they commit in the name of “national pride.”

[1] Guoqi, Xu. Olympic Dreams: China and Sports. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, London England, 2008. Accessed November 4^th, 2012.

[2] Rosenfield, Everett. Wu Minxia: Chinese Diver’s Parents Hid Family Illness, Deaths from Her. Time Magazine; Olympics. Accessed, November 7^th, 2012. Last Modified by Editor, August 3^rd, 2012. http://olympics.time.com/2012/08/03/wu-minxia-chinese-divers-parents-hid-family-illness-deaths-from-her/

[3] Ian Ransom and Ryan McNeil, Reuters. (Additional reporting by Steve Slater in London and Sabrina Mao in Beijing; Editing by Greg Stutchbury.) The Shocking Lengths China Will Go To Win at The Olympics. http://www.businessinsider.com/a-chinese-olympian-had-no-idea-her-mother-had-cancer-because-her-parents-feared-it-would-disturb-her-training-2012-8 Accessed November 7th, 2012. Last Modified by editor, August 9^th, 2012

[4] Photo’s by Reuters, by Aaron, Chris; Is China’s Olympic training program too much? http://sport.malaysia.msn.com/olympic-games/hys-is-china%E2%80%99s-olympic-training-program-too-much#image=1