The Opening of the Olympic Games!!

After the night market, we all piled into a hotel room to watch the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games! Sprawled across two beds, snacking on Thai street food, we watched with rapt attention as the parade of nations strolled past on the screen (scanning for cute guys). Soon after we turned the TV on, the President of the Olympic council appeared on the screen and addressed the crowd in English. Then, the familiar face of (Chinese president) Hu Jintao appeared on screen. In a voice thick with emotion, he declared the opening of the 2008 Games!!!

I was a little surprised by how excited I was by the opening of the Games. I have so many ambivalent attitudes about the Chinese government and its policies, and have followed the questionable “Blue Sky Beijing” program and torch relay protests with such attention, that I nearly lost sight of the actual event at the center of this swirling controversy. In the weeks leading up to the Games, I had given a decent amount of thought to the question of whether or not the Olympics is or is not an appropriate occasion for protesting the policies or philosophies of the hosting government.

Yet in those incredible moments, as Hu Jintao’s voice boomed across that auditorium, all rational deliberation was swept aside. All I could think of was the pride shining in the eyes of my Chinese friends as they talked about these games to me three years ago, of all the trying and planning and sweat and wealth and time the country had poured into this undertaking from the second they got the green light, of the half-built stadium, aquarium, and village I had visited and explored at the Olympic Planning Museum back when no one was quite sure China was really going to pull things off… and when the announcer cried out “ZHU HE ZHONG GUO” a little part of me was yelling it too.