M.C.,
Your mail has just arrived in the right time when I am going to write something for my stupid blog.
I thought you had been flown into the Bird's Nest to enjoy two full weeks of Olympic spiritual intoxication.
Just watching on TV the technically flawless and spectacular performances in the opening ceremony could have thrown you into ecstasies, couldn't it?
It looks like you are still very much intoxicated, much more than those teen gymnastic angels who won all those gold medals for adding to the glory of the glorious ancient nation.
I hope that you would turn sober and less sentimental when you wake up a couple of days later.
And you should work out a bit to keep fitter in order to glorify the ancient nation yourself, and not leave the heavy burden to the Party, the government, and also the athletes which include all those very young gymnastic angels, who have been trained like hell since they were tiny little girls, and also the drop-out hurdler Liu Xiang who let many of his irrational worshippers extremely down.
Our nation's being able to top the list of gold medals is of course good, so good that it should have been achieved decades earlier, but certainly not good enough to convince some of the Westerners that China is worth their respect and recognition that the Party is so eager to earn.
And some Westerners still have an impregnable sense of superiority that can hardly be updated, certainly not by counting of gold medals or something like that.
You show them purposely you can achieve something, you do it in vain. What you get in return could be deeper hatred and contempt instead of recognition. This could be racism, and not confined to racism.
The Olympic achievements are great. They are worth more than 300 billion yuan. Beijing is now a modern metropolis. Yet in many remote provincial rural areas there are still utterly poor young children and teenagers deprived of decent education. And there are still towns and villages that could easily be liquefied by an earthquake.
Of course we want the rest of the world to learn more about us, even though we haven't sufficiently learnt about the rest of the world yet, despite that we have sent students by the million to the Western world to study and copy.
But what exactly are we? Do we really know ourselves well in the first place? Have we learnt about our ancient civilization, our culture and history adequately for telling the rest of the world what made us as we are?
I am afraid not, simply because education and academic studies are still subject to strict ideology control in the Mainland.
Just how we should talk about the Great Helmsman Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution is rather tricky.
How we should talk about the KMT-CCP civil war and the Mainland-Taiwan status-quo is even trickier. The mainlanders can only be free to talk about the issues in the Party's viewpoint.
To talk about the 1989 Tian'anmen Square Incident could be the trickiest, even in this tiny little free region of China.
These are some of the topics that may interest the ordinary Westerners, who really care about China, more than the 4 ancient inventions do.
By the way, I would like to talk about the invitation of the governor of Tokyo 東京都知事 to the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
Beijing broad-mindedly invited Ishihara Shintaro 石原慎太郎 to the opening ceremony.
Ishihara is a writer turned right-wing politician who would spare no efforts to intentionally agitate the Chinese government and people. He hates the Chinese and the Koreans with his whole heart. He denies that the Japanese committed the Nanjing massacre. He says the Chinese fabricated the story. And he says if the U.S. goes to war with China, the U.S. will lose because the Americans value human lives and the Chinese do not.
This is definitely not a friend of China and the Chinese people. Yet China did the right thing inviting this man to the ceremony.
Having seen in the massive group dance the purposely chosen Han character 和, which may mean harmony or peace, and is also the name of the Japanese domninant ethnic people (大和民族 Yamato minzoku), to which he belongs, Ishihara so far has not say things really bad of the Chinese, at least not openly. He even praised the student volunteers he encountered.
Now Tokyo is bidding to host the 2016 Olympics, so Ishihara must have known it all too well that he should better conceal his deep-rooted hatred and contempt in order to sound friendly.
I can't speculate where Ishihara's hatred comes from. But his contempt is rather comprehensible. We demand an official apology for what the Japanese committed in Nanjing, we have a rough number of the victims slaughtered. But as of the Cultural Revolution and the Tian'anmen Incident, our government seems to have kept no account at all. This is more than enough for the Japanese contempt to be based on.
Of course it's good that China has won so many Olympic gold medals this time.
But when you are at the top, challengers converge to engage you, and you simply have to train harder still to face new challenges. A more hellish training life will be awaiting the gifted athletes if they are determined to stay at the top of the list. Even a nation with such a huge population base of 1.3 billion strong could not have much of the upper hand.
Excelling in international athletic games and sports competitions is only one of the many aspects in terms of indicating the quality and well-being of a nation's citizens, just like excelling personally in an athletic or sports performance is only one of the many aspects in terms of indicating the quality of the person's life. Those who run really fast might not even necessarily be really healthy, or happy.
Our beloved nation has occupied the top place of the golden Olympics now. Yet the nation is yet to claim its people are among the strongest and healthiest.
It takes only a few years to train an Olympic gold medalist, but it takes decades to educate an ordinary person.
2008/08/24
Pain and boredom – Watching an Olympic event on TV
When very few can tell what the so-called Olympic Spirit is all about, many just enjoy watching athletes competing in the One World's One Arena, probably for bringing about One Dream of a certain kind by having empathy for their athletic idols.
Winning of the Olympic gold medal surely helps to boost patriotism. It is especially true for the Chinese in particular, who have spent more than 300 billion yuan on hosting the Games, and historically topped the list of the gold medals.
Many are simply so intoxicated with their athletic idols 'striking gold'. And it feels just as good seeing the hoisting of the 5-starred red flag and hearing the national anthem.
With good drinks and snacks, and also the comfort of the couch and air-conditioning, the Olympic Spirit brings very little into the cozy home in terms of inspiring people to do sweating physical exercise to keep the body and soul sound and fit.
Thanks to the acceleration of globalization, the Olympiad has already become a tiny little bit of the international show business now, without quite losing its illegitimate and subtle role in international politics though. Now even very unfit people love to watch the fittest, toughest or strongest of the world deliver incredible physical performances, just like some who cannot tell the note C sharp from C could have a true love for a certain kind of music.
I think the secret is empathy. Empathy can work in such a way that when you listen to a soprano singing beautifully, you feel like doing the same. When you watch athletes compete on TV, you feel like getting tired and hungry easily just sitting in the couch doing nothing but exclaiming with admiration. You may be desirous of an extra cushion and some extra calories.
When you are not willing to do something hard for your body to stay fit, you can always find a super sports idol who can do it for you perfectly well, provided that your empathy works effectively to enable you to become a faithful fan. As a faithful fan you dream what your idol actually does in the arena. And, of course, you contribute to your idol’s wealthiness by purchasing commodities that your idol advocates on TV and other media. I wonder if this phenomenon could be called sporto-commercialism, or sporto-patrio-commercialism.
Though I don't mind my patriotism being updated by simply watching the Beijing Olympic Games, I haven't enjoyed more than a handful of them on TV yet. My HDD recorder has been programmed to do its job so as to enable me to enjoy watching some of the events in later hours or later days if I would like to. But it is a pity that I have already missed most of those spectacular performances that must have shown the ultimate power of the human body and mind.
One of those games I didn't actually miss was the inaugural10 km open water swimming for women, young women only, of course.
There was a smart and powerful Russian girl called Larisa Ilchenko who harvested the gold medal after adhering to the feet of the British swimmers nearly all the way to the finish. She kept so funny a distance that her hands could have tapped the feet of one of the Brits ahead every now and then. It was not in the last couple of hundred or so metres that she overtook the British duo and led to the end to win the exhausting race. But this teen swimmer did not seem the least exhausted at all.
One of the British girls was annoyed, and she made some remarks about the German girl Maurer who came in fourth. She said it was not sportsmanship pulling on someone's feet. Of course it was not. But who cares! That German was no sportsman after all, she was a sportswoman.
That complaining girl has the same last name as the last British Governor of Hong Kong, which is Patten, which as an English word also means wooden shoe. This young Patten, who does float like a wooden shoe, was dubbed Britain's gold medal hope for the inaugural event. She failed to grab it. No wonder she was annoyed enough to have a word.
The other girl of the duo who nearly 'struck gold' was Payne. Well, she failed the glittering heavy metal for just being slow for as little as only one and a half seconds after having led for almost 2 long hours. Her last name Payne might not have anything to do with the word pain which pronounces exactly the same. She actually didn't show the least pain at all after completing the contention course. She seemed more than content with that bit of silver. Her smiles could be true, for she was not Britain's gold medal hope this time.
Even so, just what huge load of pain this young lady must have endured before she could be rewarded with that Olympic silver medal! She must not have been convinced that she still couldn't beat the teen Russian super power this time in Beijing. She had certainly trained for the gold, and not the silver.
I don't know what it is like stroking the water with the two arms and kicking it with the two feet in a man-made lake for two long hours on end, covering a distance of 10 whole kilometres, facing downward seeing nothing but lake water, and smelling the ecology of it, and also putting up with the irritating frequent tapping on the sensitive feet by a particular competitor unbeaten for 4 long years in other distance swimming. I cannot imagine going along with such boredom and nuisance for most of the 2 hard hours, and being engaged in some 'water wrestling' scenes to receive some kicking, knocking, grabbing and pulling. It just has to be painful. This young Payne didn't say a word about that.
This long distance swimming race reminds me that I do know something about the pain and boredom covering a distance of a whole 10 kilometres, by walking for nothing in my case of course, instead of swimming for an Olympic medal, in the dark immediately after sunset when there is not much left in the wilderness for viewing, with a backpack heavy enough to crush the spine, along the trail with rugged sections, uphill and down, from a remote site back to the road, racing with time for the last bus bound for town.
I don't enjoy very much doing nothing else but walk, and walk, and walk in the dark, for 3 long hours on end. Although I am used to long walk with a heavy load, it is still rather boring for the mind, and a bit painful for the body and limbs.
But certainly it is no match for a 10 km swimming, with the face immersed all the time; not to mention the competitive part, in which the body wants to quit, but the mind orders it to keep going as fast as IMPOSSIBLE in order to win a medal, followed by a lot of fame and money of course!
Most Olympic athletes have to endure much pain and stress during training and competing. They always want to, or dream to beat the others, so as to be the winner for a time. For this they endure all kinds of pain and stress to train really hard. Having such dream, never waking up, and always aiming at a higher goal makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.
Yet many participants who have the same dream realistically know they have no chance of victory at all in this World Arena, they participate for the sake of participation. They pile up to support the stage of pride, glory and fame. And this also makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.
Then at the end of the day they count the medals. And this also makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.
For the non-sports world, the Olympics could have cheered up the spirits of billions of ordinary people who hardly do any physical exercise at all. Most wouldn't even climb a single flight of stairs during this short period of summer time, not before the Olympic fortnight, and not after it.
Winning of the Olympic gold medal surely helps to boost patriotism. It is especially true for the Chinese in particular, who have spent more than 300 billion yuan on hosting the Games, and historically topped the list of the gold medals.
Many are simply so intoxicated with their athletic idols 'striking gold'. And it feels just as good seeing the hoisting of the 5-starred red flag and hearing the national anthem.
With good drinks and snacks, and also the comfort of the couch and air-conditioning, the Olympic Spirit brings very little into the cozy home in terms of inspiring people to do sweating physical exercise to keep the body and soul sound and fit.
Thanks to the acceleration of globalization, the Olympiad has already become a tiny little bit of the international show business now, without quite losing its illegitimate and subtle role in international politics though. Now even very unfit people love to watch the fittest, toughest or strongest of the world deliver incredible physical performances, just like some who cannot tell the note C sharp from C could have a true love for a certain kind of music.
I think the secret is empathy. Empathy can work in such a way that when you listen to a soprano singing beautifully, you feel like doing the same. When you watch athletes compete on TV, you feel like getting tired and hungry easily just sitting in the couch doing nothing but exclaiming with admiration. You may be desirous of an extra cushion and some extra calories.
When you are not willing to do something hard for your body to stay fit, you can always find a super sports idol who can do it for you perfectly well, provided that your empathy works effectively to enable you to become a faithful fan. As a faithful fan you dream what your idol actually does in the arena. And, of course, you contribute to your idol’s wealthiness by purchasing commodities that your idol advocates on TV and other media. I wonder if this phenomenon could be called sporto-commercialism, or sporto-patrio-commercialism.
Though I don't mind my patriotism being updated by simply watching the Beijing Olympic Games, I haven't enjoyed more than a handful of them on TV yet. My HDD recorder has been programmed to do its job so as to enable me to enjoy watching some of the events in later hours or later days if I would like to. But it is a pity that I have already missed most of those spectacular performances that must have shown the ultimate power of the human body and mind.
One of those games I didn't actually miss was the inaugural10 km open water swimming for women, young women only, of course.
There was a smart and powerful Russian girl called Larisa Ilchenko who harvested the gold medal after adhering to the feet of the British swimmers nearly all the way to the finish. She kept so funny a distance that her hands could have tapped the feet of one of the Brits ahead every now and then. It was not in the last couple of hundred or so metres that she overtook the British duo and led to the end to win the exhausting race. But this teen swimmer did not seem the least exhausted at all.
One of the British girls was annoyed, and she made some remarks about the German girl Maurer who came in fourth. She said it was not sportsmanship pulling on someone's feet. Of course it was not. But who cares! That German was no sportsman after all, she was a sportswoman.
That complaining girl has the same last name as the last British Governor of Hong Kong, which is Patten, which as an English word also means wooden shoe. This young Patten, who does float like a wooden shoe, was dubbed Britain's gold medal hope for the inaugural event. She failed to grab it. No wonder she was annoyed enough to have a word.
The other girl of the duo who nearly 'struck gold' was Payne. Well, she failed the glittering heavy metal for just being slow for as little as only one and a half seconds after having led for almost 2 long hours. Her last name Payne might not have anything to do with the word pain which pronounces exactly the same. She actually didn't show the least pain at all after completing the contention course. She seemed more than content with that bit of silver. Her smiles could be true, for she was not Britain's gold medal hope this time.
Even so, just what huge load of pain this young lady must have endured before she could be rewarded with that Olympic silver medal! She must not have been convinced that she still couldn't beat the teen Russian super power this time in Beijing. She had certainly trained for the gold, and not the silver.
I don't know what it is like stroking the water with the two arms and kicking it with the two feet in a man-made lake for two long hours on end, covering a distance of 10 whole kilometres, facing downward seeing nothing but lake water, and smelling the ecology of it, and also putting up with the irritating frequent tapping on the sensitive feet by a particular competitor unbeaten for 4 long years in other distance swimming. I cannot imagine going along with such boredom and nuisance for most of the 2 hard hours, and being engaged in some 'water wrestling' scenes to receive some kicking, knocking, grabbing and pulling. It just has to be painful. This young Payne didn't say a word about that.
This long distance swimming race reminds me that I do know something about the pain and boredom covering a distance of a whole 10 kilometres, by walking for nothing in my case of course, instead of swimming for an Olympic medal, in the dark immediately after sunset when there is not much left in the wilderness for viewing, with a backpack heavy enough to crush the spine, along the trail with rugged sections, uphill and down, from a remote site back to the road, racing with time for the last bus bound for town.
I don't enjoy very much doing nothing else but walk, and walk, and walk in the dark, for 3 long hours on end. Although I am used to long walk with a heavy load, it is still rather boring for the mind, and a bit painful for the body and limbs.
But certainly it is no match for a 10 km swimming, with the face immersed all the time; not to mention the competitive part, in which the body wants to quit, but the mind orders it to keep going as fast as IMPOSSIBLE in order to win a medal, followed by a lot of fame and money of course!
Most Olympic athletes have to endure much pain and stress during training and competing. They always want to, or dream to beat the others, so as to be the winner for a time. For this they endure all kinds of pain and stress to train really hard. Having such dream, never waking up, and always aiming at a higher goal makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.
Yet many participants who have the same dream realistically know they have no chance of victory at all in this World Arena, they participate for the sake of participation. They pile up to support the stage of pride, glory and fame. And this also makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.
Then at the end of the day they count the medals. And this also makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.
For the non-sports world, the Olympics could have cheered up the spirits of billions of ordinary people who hardly do any physical exercise at all. Most wouldn't even climb a single flight of stairs during this short period of summer time, not before the Olympic fortnight, and not after it.
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