China Digital Times (CDT) » Tag: Olympics torch

The “Olympics Diary” of a Tibetan

Sophie Beach — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:27:12 +0000

The following diary was originally posted in Chinese and provides a glimpse into life in a remote Tibetan area as the Olympics were being celebrated in Beijing:

The “Olympics Diary” of a Tibetan
By Tashibod

Today is Tuesday, July 22, 2008, and it is the tenth day since I came back to my hometown. Within these ten days, even when I refused to watch any TV and kept myself away from the internet, almost every day I could still hear about and see things concerning the Beijing Olympics in the home of a countryman in a remote area in Tibet. Therefore, today I decided to write a special diary – an Olympic Diary. I want to record all the details about how I felt about the Beijing Olympics in this remote place in Tibet when the Olympics were about to begin in Beijing, when I had no access to internet or TV.

July 22, 2008, Tuesday, The Olympics Blow against My Face

During breakfast my father, who had just come back from herding the cattle, said that there was a new bunker (diaobao) made up of sandbags at the end of the bridge over the big river, and fully armed soldiers were on duty. My father clicked his tongue in wonder and was amazed at the speed, saying “yesterday there was nothing, then this morning it suddenly appeared like this.” My family was discussing this while having breakfast. Though the old people could not remember the time when a bunker was built at the end of the bridge, no one was surprised at the appearance of the bunker. In addition, my family unanimously believes that this change was a preparatory measure taken by the government for the imminent Olympics. I was surprised to see my family’s natural and calm reaction to this event and their unanimous judgment concerning it, and I found out that they were accustomed to such things – such actions taken by the government, especially when the Olympics were about to begin.

At the dinner table, my father said that he heard that every county seat of the entire prefecture would be sealed off, all public transport would be stopped and no cars or people were allowed to travel between the county seats. I asked my father how was it possible to do this! He said to me everything was possible, and told me that at the time of the March 14 Incident they also did this. At that time, all the transportation stopped, and only some sedan cars were allowed to travel between counties after passing through many inspections. As soon as I heard my father’s words, I also felt it is possible to do this, and the government was capable of doing anything imaginable. As long as one could ensure there would be no incidents during the Olympics, and as long as one could report to one’s superiors on completing their tasks, then interfering with the normal living habits of the people and obstructing the normal social order would be considered to be minor issues. They do not even need to think about them, let alone provide explanations for their actions.

When I though about it further, I felt it was not good! If the county seat were to be sealed off in August, then what should I do with the present to ZH? Originally I had agreed to send it to him in late August, but if the county seat were to be sealed off, then it would be impossible for me to go to Chengdu. I pondered it over further, then I decided to send the present to my friend in Beijing.

In the afternoon, I went to the post office, and I saw many people were in front of the counters. For post offices in small towns, there are neither rules for people to wait for their number nor the habit to line up, thus, everybody was trying to push forward. After all the trouble for me to get to the front, and after a few Han Chinese male workers from other regions finished sending their money, the clerk asked me what I wanted to send, and told me that some things which we could usually send could not be sent during the Olympics. I was thinking to myself, “Olympics this and Olympics that, in the end would it allow people to live or not?” I said to the clerk, “Why can’t I send it? I am just sending a small present!” I should be grateful to the government for not listing this small toy in the list of the contraband. Though it took me a while, at long last, I sent the present.

Ah, I felt the flavor of the Olympics had already blown against my face.

(...)
Read the rest of The “Olympics Diary” of a Tibetan (5,149 words)

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | 56 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ethnic discrimination, Olympics torch, Olympics views, Tibet
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Hu Yong: The “Sacred Flame” in China

Xiao Qiang — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:01:04 +0000

Hu Yong, an associate professor of School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University and a blogger, writes on his blog, translated by CDT’s Linjun Fan:

The Beijing Olympic Torch relay was brought to every province and autonomous region in China in addition to tour in 19 cities across the world. Wherever it went in China, countless residents were organized to watch and defend the “Sacred Flame.” The torch was delivered on the top of Everest on May 8. Although the devastating Sichuan Earthquake had temporarily suspended the carnival-like torch relay, it was resumed with great pomp and circumstance shortly after the disaster-striken areas started reconstruction.
We Chinese have a world-class ability to carry out pompous and ceremonious projects. And the torch relay had a few unique Chinese characteristics:
First, the event was extremely lavish. All local governments went to great lengths to make the ceremony grand. For instance, Sanya City spent a huge amount of money to build a Torch Square for the relay. Officials of Benxi, a declining industrious city, spent more than 50 million RMB to “embrace the torch with all the city’s resources.”
However, the torch failed to show up in the city eventually due to a route change, which made local residents very disappointed…
Second, the torch bearers were all celebrities or they were from elite groups. The selection process was not transparent. Top officials often decided who would be the torch bearers. Therefore very few ordinary people were able to participate in the relay. China has larger rural areas than urban areas, and its rural population is bigger than its urban population, yet the torch never passed through any place in China’s vast countryside.
Third, the relay was commercialized. One could be a torch bearer if he was willing to pay money for it. A number of potbellied party secretaries and company presidents were selected as torch bearers, so the relay had become a chance for the rich and the powerful in the Chinese society to show off.
Fourth, the Games was politicized, which was opposed by many Olympic countries. China has politicized the Games itself, however, ironically it has been calling on the world to not play politics with the Games. Officials in Beijing, and local officials in charge of the cities on the torch relay route must have taken the Beijing Games as the most important political event this year.
We have another amazing ability to dramatize things, which was perfectly illustrated by the story of how residents of Benxi City were fooled during a torch relay farce… [See CDT's translation of this story here.]
Wherever the torch arrived, there was chaos. City officials racked their brains to select a safe route for the torch to pass through. For instance, officials of Kunming City decided to let the torch circle inside its World Exposition Park several times. Officials of Liaoning Province decided to take the torch to its sparsely-inhabited suburb. Once a torch relay route was set, everybody, including officials, police and ordinary residents, got extremely nervous. The atmosphere there was as tense as in some western countries where the torch was under attack by protesters.
Steel pipes were erected to seal off roads. The Police Department of Qingdao City convened a large army of security force composed of police, armed police and security guards. …Ordinary citizens bought Olympics T-shirts and banners intending to celebrate the arrival of the torch and waited for days for it. However, their enthusiasm was smothered. …
The torch relay became a big drama staged by the government. Officials were actors as well as spectators. They used two strategies to support the pompous event: spending a large amount of money and exploiting a great number of people. The government used administrative resources to carry out the torch relay. They spent public money from taxpayers to set up grand stages for their play, and they ordered tens of thousands of people to support the play by issuing paper notices. To put it more plainly, they wanted to hold a grand performance, but they were caught in a dilemma: they were worried that they would lose face if few people showed up, and were also worried that trouble would arise if lots of people were in the audience. They longed for the arrival of the torch, but they feared it as well.
Undeniably, some people were trying to sabotage the torch relay. But the government could just have canceled the relay if it was so worried about its safety. Why toil the people and waste their money? Who could tell us taxpayers how much money had been spent for the government’s political purposes and sense of face? The Beijing Olympic Games seemed to be destined to be the most costly in the Olympic history, considering all the visible and invisible costs.
The Olympic Torch was referred to as the “Sacred Flame” in China. I don’t know why the “torch relay” in English had been translated into “Sacred Flame Relay” in Chinese. The torch is actually a big lighter operated by a single person, and its flame is made out of some chemicals. How much symbolic meaning does it carry? For those who call it sacred, do they know the connections between the torch relay ceremony and the Olympic Games hosted by Nazi Germany?
The Chinese people have been familiar with the feeling of sacredness, which is closely related to despotism in the country. The more sacred an emperor was, the humbler his subjects were. The more sacred the doctrines were, the humbler the minds of ordinary people were. The more sacred we regard the system, the more powerless an individual becomes. We need to push away those sanctified things that have trampled upon us…
The “Harmonious Journey” of the Beijing Olympic torch, which the Chinese government had wished for, had become a big drama. To foreigners, China appeared on the stage as an unsure upstart who is eager to show off his wealth. It yearns for respect but doesn’t know how to respect others. Its citizens’ real feelings of joy and their enthusiasm for participation were stifled by the government. No wonder artist Ai Weiwei has asked: “Will it be really possible to have a genuine joy and celebration of people in a non-democratic society?”

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CDT translation, Hu Yong, Olympics torch
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Torch Relay Ends with a Bang (Updated with video)

Sophie Beach — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:27:20 +0000

BBC is reporting that four foreigners have been arrested in Beijing for scaling 120-foot light poles and unfurling 140 square foot pro-Tibet banners outside the Bird’s Nest stadium during the final leg of the Olympic torch relay:

Meanwhile state media reported that four pro-Tibet activists from Britain and the US had been arrested in Beijing after a brief protest close to the Olympic stadium.
They had unfurled two large “Free Tibet” banners from electricity poles, despite tight security.

Students for a Free Tibet is taking credit for the stunt.

Read also: Tibet protesters fly flag near Beijing’s Bird Nest on the Star by Bill Schiller.

The Xinhua reports, via the China Daily: 4 foreign nationals ordered to leave China:

Two Americans and two British nationals have been ordered to leave China “within a prescribed time limit” after displaying “Free Tibet” banners near an Olympic venue in Beijing on Wednesday, local police said.
Two are expected to leave on Wednesday night and the other two on Thursday.
“They disrupted public order and violated Chinese laws. Their period of stay in the country will hereby be cut short according to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens,” the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.
The four, three men and one woman, had entered China on tourist visas.
They gathered at about 5:47 am at the Beichen Overpass near the National Stadium, or Bird’s Nest, in Chaoyang District in northeast Beijing.
Two of the men climbed up two electricity poles and hung the banners.
One banner bore large black letters declaring “One World One Dream Free Tibet,” while the other said: “Tibet will be free” in English and “Free Tibet” in Chinese.
Local police rushed to the scene 12 minutes later and took them away.

The Guardian reports: Tibet demo Britons ‘to be deported‘:

Two British Free Tibet campaigners are in custody in China after unfurling a Tibetan flag and banner outside the Olympic stadium.
Lucy Fairbrother, 23, and Iain Thom, 24, were arrested in Beijing alongside two US activists. All four are expected to be deported at the earliest opportunity, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.
As the British Embassy in the Chinese capital continued to try to get access to the pair, who are members of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), their families spoke of their pride.

This news on the web, via Google News.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | 135 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Olympics protests, Olympics torch, Tibet protests
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

CDT Interview Series: Chinese Journalists Talk About the Olympics, Tibet, and Cross-Cultural Understanding (4)

Kiran Goldman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 05:32:30 +0000

[Editor's Note: Since March, a series of events including unrest in Lhasa and protests following the Olympic torch relay, have brought to the surface a clash between nationalist elements of the Chinese public and international critics of China. Because of tight control by the propaganda department, the issues of Tibet, foreign criticism of China's human rights record, and nationalism are not allowed to be publicly debated in the Chinese media. But what do Chinese journalists really think about these issues? In an effort to gain a more nuanced answer to this question, CDT interviewed four working Chinese journalists. Most of the interviewees prefer to remain anonymous. They are all based in Beijing and work in various national magazines and newspapers. CDT has not edited their responses.

The last interview follows. The first three interviews are here, here and here.]
(...)
Read the rest of CDT Interview Series: Chinese Journalists Talk About the Olympics, Tibet, and Cross-Cultural Understanding (4) (1,642 words)

© Kiran Goldman for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: journalists, Olympics torch, Tibet coverage, Tibet protests
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Susan Brownell: Why were Chinese People so Angry about the Attempts to Seize the Torch in the International Torch Relay?

Xiao Qiang — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:45:07 +0000

Dr. Susan Brownell writes in The China Beat blog:

In China, the majority of public expressions take place in a vast field of rituals and symbols, while the protest zones that were recently announced for the Olympic Games are the small, circumscribed spaces where critical analytical thought is expressed. In the US, the majority of public expressions take place in a vast field of critical analytical thought, while ritual expression takes place in small, circumscribed places like churches and, arguably, sports events. I realized that at least part of the anger that many Chinese people felt at the disruptions of the international torch relay was the result of the (to them) appalling and uncivilized lack of respect for a nearly-sacred object.
In the West the Olympic Games have struggled with a loss of idealism due to challenges like commercialism and doping. The ChineseOlympic organizers and many Chinese people held an idealistic faith in the transformative power of the Olympic Games, believing that they could facilitate China’s integration with the world and benefit its future development. The West duly regarded this with skepticism. According to Turner, a balanced social process requires rituals. The global village needs its ritual and the Olympic Games are currently serving that function. But also according to Turner, ritual has the potential to either increase solidarity or initiate irreparable schisms.
In Deyang it was possible to foresee the closing of this cultural gap between China and the West. Everyone agreed that our final performance at the elite Foreign Languages Middle School in Deyang was the “most orderly” – and all but myself and the artist Sun Yiyong considered this a good thing. The children did not mob The Torch or me. They spoke very good English and they paid 40,000 yuan per year in tuition. Apparently for such privileged children The Torch and The International Person had already lost some of their lustre.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Olympics torch
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The No-Show Torch

Linjun Fan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:50:37 +0000

Chinese reporter Guan Jun has written a story about how the city of Benxi spent tens of millions of yuan and harassed local residents in an effort to welcome the Olympic Torch, only to find out that the relay route had been changed:
(...)
Read the rest of The No-Show Torch (1,176 words)

© Linjun Fan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CDT translation, Olympic spending, Olympics torch, Olympics views
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

CDT Interview Series: Chinese Journalists Talk About the Olympics, Tibet, and Cross-Cultural Understanding (3)

Xiao Qiang — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:20:21 +0000

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: journalists, Olympics torch, Tibet coverage, Tibet protests
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

CDT Interview Series: Chinese Journalists Talk About the Olympics, Tibet, and Cross-Cultural Understanding (2)

Rhyen Coombs — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:14:58 +0000

© Rhyen Coombs for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: journalists, Olympics torch, Tibet coverage, Tibet protests
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Faking the Olympic Spirit in China’s Muslim Region

Sophie Beach — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:41:44 +0000

As the Olympic torch continues its beleaguered relay through China’s Western regions, Der Spiegel reports on how it played in Kashgar:

On the day of the torch run, only invited guests from selected “work units” and schools were allowed to cheer on the runners from the roadside. The homes around the Idkah Mosque and the people’s square seemed deserted: No windows were open and no residents watched the spectacle from above. Meanwhile, soldiers, militia and police gathered in large numbers and hermetically sealed off the area around the mosque. They even stuck yellow tape over the storm drains.
The Chinese government is wary of its remote province, in particular of Kashgar. As in Tibet, Beijing sniffs a conspiracy in the autonomous Muslim region of Xinjiang — not by the “traitorous Dalai Lama clique,” but the Uighar separatists who are fighting for an independent East Turkistan.
Yet, how dangerous these groups are is unclear. Uighars in exile accuse Beijing of exaggerating the danger, to give it a reason to clamp down on religious groups.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: kashgar, Olympics torch, Xinjiang
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China Parades Olympic Torch In Heavily Guarded Capital Of Tibet

Liu Yong — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:39:46 +0000

From Los Angeles Times:

China paraded the Olympic torch through the Tibetan capital Saturday in defiance of critics who called it a provocative move that could undermine the fragile peace in the Himalayan region three months after the government suppressed violent anti-China protests there.
Lhasa remained under virtual lockdown as security forces guarded the carefully selected crowds that cheered the scaled-down two-hour-plus relay from Norbulingka, a traditional Tibetan square, to the Potala Palace, the former seat of power of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The torch relay has been dogged by controversy since it began in Greece in March. What was designed as a worldwide goodwill tour showcasing a rising new China has become a magnet for trouble.