Chinese Introduce New Sport: Deception

Chinese Introduce New Sport: Deception (中国人首创的新运动项目: 耍花招)

Crooked smiles disqualified

Bruce Arthur, National Post
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

BEIJING -More than anything, the Beijing Olympics have seduced the eyes of the world. At first glance, these could be called the Smile Olympics, since every one of the 100,000 volunteers carries one, permanently affixed. Or they could be called the Epic Olympics, where wonders of the world like the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube have been raised from the Earth. Or the Breathtaking Olympics, maybe, and not just because of the smog.

But as the Games roll on, and as we are carried away by the athletic spectacle of it all, reminders pop up daily that what we see is not necessarily how things are.

Yesterday, the lies began to appear, one by one and in a bunch. There was the admission that volunteer cheer squads are being used to fill emptier-than-expected venues, even though every ticket was reported sold. There was the admission that footage of the "footprint" fireworks that spanned the city during the Opening Ceremony were, in fact, faked for broadcast.

They set off the fireworks all right, but the official TV feed sent all over the world included "previously recorded footage [that] was provided to the broadcasters, for convenience and theatrical effects," according to Wang Wei, a vice-president for the Beijing Organizing Committee, or BOCOG.

The pinnacle of deceit, however, came when Chen Qigang, the music director of the Opening Ceremony, admitted to state media that the adorable nine-year-old girl who sang Ode to the Motherland as China's flag was carried into the main stadium was not, in fact, singing. Lin Miaoke was chosen because the girl whose voice was used, Yang Peiyi, had too-crooked teeth and a too-chubby face. As Chen reportedly put it, "we were concerned with the interests of the nation."

According to Agence France-Presse, Chen said the final decision to swap out the real singer came when a senior member of China's ruling Communist Party came to a rehearsal.

"He told us there was a problem that we needed to fix it, so we did," Chen said.

That is China. Many of the problems of other Olympics -- transportation, venue construction, organization -- have been fixed. Everything is maniacally efficient, and meticulously planned.

So we should not be surprised that China's vast bureaucracy has considered every detail of how this emerging superpower will appear to the world. In a country where propaganda is as ubiquitous as its people, the Olympics are proving to be the propagandists' Mona Lisa, their Sistine Chapel, their masterpiece, aside from the fact that some truths are being discovered.

Coming into these $40-billion Olympics -- a price tag that, in real dollars, will almost certainly remain an Olympic record -- the questions were whether the IOC had sold its soul, such as it is. How could the Games, which profess to be dedicated to the elevation of humanity, join forces with China's chilling human rights record, its unfolding environmental disaster, its support for genocidal regimes?

It is more and more clear that in order to deliver this market of 1.3 billion to their corporate sponsors, the IOC has at least leased its soul, or rented it out. During yesterday's joint daily briefing between the IOC and BOCOG, it was revealed that a Radio Free Asia reporter of Tibetan descent has been approved for accreditation by the IOC, but denied a visa by Chinese authorities. Dhondup Gonsar is an American citizen who broadcasts in Tibetan for the non-profit radio service, and is waiting in Hong Kong for approval, which Wang said was "still pending." Unlike Olympics speedskater and Darfur activist Joey Cheek's visa, which was revoked.

The International Federation of Journalists also reports that some reporters have been followed and photographed by plainclothes security officers. They, too, are not what they appear.

Yesterday morning, media members got off their buses and found an armoured personnel carrier sitting out front of the Main Press Centre. It was hardly intimidating -- reporters lined up to have their picture taken with it -- but it was an oddly powerful reminder of precisely where we are. As one prominent American columnist said upon getting off the bus, "Hello, Tiananmen Square."

"I've been to different Games and I don't think this is surprising in Beijing," protested Wang.

"I've seen them in other Games. Is that right?"

Sure, Athens had Patriot missiles stationed in the hills, and various Games have featured various serious-looking men with guns. But Italy didn't imprison its dissidents, and Greece has freedom of the press, and the United States, for all its faults, never had a Tiananman Square.

What China has built here is incredible. The architecture, the machinery, the armies of volunteers and an Opening Ceremony with images that were surely seared into the soul of every Chinese citizen, and not a few citizens of the world, who watched. These are the Superpower Olympics, damn the costs. As Thomas Boswell of The Washington Post put it, the four billion people who will see these Olympics will witness "the behemoth that is being born."

But they are the Hollywood Olympics, too, complete with false fronts and lead actors and a cast of thousands, or millions. At its heart, this is a bright, shining, $40-billion lie. If the whole thing is being staged in Cambodia, don't be surprised.

In a concession to imagery, the turret of the military vehicle out front was hidden under a dark vinyl cover, as was a smaller armament. But there were still guns underneath.

From: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=718859