The Olympic Main Event
Just in case you haven’t heard, a certain city in China will be hosting a major international sporting event in exactly one year’s time. The press, of course, is having its usual contradictory field day, collectively slack-jawed by the onslaught of unthinkably large mega-projects while simultaneously trying to balance the story with the usual talk of politics, labour conditions and environmental degradation. The one-year countdown point is apparently the perfect time to bash our heads in with the latest China Rising stories, which are fulfilling their annual obligation to sensationalism by rediscovering- once again - that the country is undergoing tremendous change. At this point, I’m just confused: is China rising more than usual? Are they talking about a general rise or one that is specifically confined to 2007? Is Beijing transforming more now than it was in 2006? or 2004? Do they have someone on the payroll counting construction projects to decide whether the change is substantial enough to run another China Rising story?
And for their part, Chinese officials are busy insisting that the Olympics and its grand spectacle not be politicized- well, at least not by anyone but them. Unfortunately, history is not on their side: the Olympics of the past century have been nothing if not a stream of political statements (think Berlin 1936, Munich 1972) and boycotts (Melbourne 1956, Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980, Los Angeles 1984). In this context, the agitation surrounding the first Chinese games is hardly something out of the ordinary. In a way, the Chinese government did it to themselves by positioning the event as a declaration of success for their still-quite-shaky development model. Throw a little hubris onto the scene, and the usual critics will come running- or alternatively unfold a banner demanding freedom for a certain disputed western region.
For seasoned China watchers, however, this is all old news. The growing instability of the Chinese development model is hardly the story of these upcoming Olympics, much less the actual athletic events or medal count. Rather, the main questions are: Will Beijing manage to pull it all off? Will this event manage to impress the world as intended?
My answer to both these questions, which might surprise some of my regular readers, is a cautious yes.
Naysayers, I believe, are getting muddled on the question of scale. Beijing, or China as a whole for that matter, does not need to solve all of its problems before next August- it merely needs to figure out how to sweep them under the rug for two weeks while the global media spectacle is in town. For example, much fuss has been made about Beijing’s sickening levels of pollution and permanent gridlock traffic- alleviating the root causes of these woes will take years, perhaps decades if ever. But Olympics do not last that long. The event’s success depends entirely on drastic short-term and temporary interventions which gloss over deep deficiencies rather than fix them, a game of image-making in which China is second to none.
Thus, the Chinese government doesn’t need to reconsider its pollution-intensive industrialization or questionable encouragement of private car ownership, it only needs to order them out of existence just long enough to produce the desired effect. Beijing has invested way too much of its reputation in the Olympics to have it shrouded in smog, and I imagine its officials will resort to some pretty drastic measures to ensure gorgeous blue sky next August. There has already been much talk about plans to massively restrict vehicle use in the city, control weather with cloud-seeding and so on, but frankly I would not be surprised if a decent swath of northern Chinese industry suddenly goes quiet next summer. The only realistic way of ensuring clean air for these games is a complete lockdown on industrial emissions in the region, and they will do it if they have to.
Of course, some will scoff at the sudden mysterious improvement of air quality during the Olympics (perhaps secretly wishing the event went on longer for the sake of their lungs), but this cynical attitude will have little impact on the spectacle at hand. This brings me to address the second question: will Beijing wow the world? Definitely. Hold on a second, you might be saying: what about all the massive evictions, demolitions and labour abuse that have paved this golden road? Shouldn’t the questionable means employed affect our judgment of the glitzy end? Personally, I do have trouble appreciating urban spectacles anywhere knowing they have left a bloody trail of corruption, exploitation and injustice in their wake (and let’s face it, China is hardly the only place in the world where this happens).
But I would gather that most people don’t bother to read about this stuff, or worse some might just simply not care. As much as we go on about sustainability, justice and cultural sensitivity, we are still a species deeply in awe of raw power and its manifestation in monumental structures. It is no coincidence that China and Dubai are permanent fixtures in the gushing press. These places have got it right: treating people like human beings might be nice and all, but it doesn’t impress anyone. When was the last time you were awed by a community meeting or a small, tightly-knit neighbourhood street? And so we get a continuous stream of world’s tallest buildings, world’s largest malls and instant monumental skylines, of mind-boggling demolition to raise towers which exude might. In the face of such brute, structural power, any considerations for the questionable practices which made these monuments possible quickly fade away. After all, how were the pyramids made? Beijing will deeply impress with its enormous skyline and engineering marvels, regardless of how or why they were built, with those pushed out of the way nothing more than ghosts unheard in the roar of flag-waving and Olympics crowds.
I do still, however, hope these Olympics are a success; not as any vindication for all the megalomania on the part of the government, but rather for the pride of the average Chinese person. On a whole, they’ve had a pretty rough ride throughout the 20th century and the 21st is fixing to be interesting, to say the least. So hopefully it will be their moment to shine, welcome the world with their deep hospitality, to cheer on their athletes and bask in some national pride. After all they’ve been through as their government cleans house for the event, they certainly deserve it.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:48 am
I pretty much agree with everything you’ve written, here and in your ‘china rises’ article. So, I dont have a comment really to make but I would like to encourage to post more! There really are few people who write about china as well as this.