One World, One Dream, Or Else

The Opening Ceremony of the XXIX Olympics were held tonight in Beijing, China at the “Birds Nest”. While watching them I was impressed by the scale. From the 2008 drummers, the fireworks, to the 500 foot rolling LED screen, to the hundred people in the undulating boxes, everything was big.

Everything also had a kind of creepy vibe. The motto of the games, “One World, One Dream” is a little bit scary coming from Communist China. The organizers also repeatedly made their point that the collective is more important than the individual. The illustration of this point that stuck out most in my mind was the people in the boxes. I am not sure how many there were, and at first I thought it was actually computerized, but it was impressive they were able to move in sync and rearrange themselves into exact patterns without making a mistake.

Of all the messages contained in the opening ceremony, the one message I found to be most unsettling was when the gyrating boxes created the Chinese character for harmony. China is a totalitarian regime that is famous for sending political dissidents to work camps to be “reeducated” in the ways of the ruling party. While some may have seen the call for harmony to be one for world peace and cooperation, I interpreted it as a call for submission and obedience to the government.

Following the art portion of the show the Parade of Nations commenced. The United States team looked quite dapper in the Ralph Lauren Polo berets and coats. The Chinese team was led in by Yao Ming and a small boy who survived the Sichuan earthquake. As they walked in I noticed that the little boy’s Chinese flag was upside down. I hope it was a small oversight, rather than a call for help. Otherwise, he could be headed for a reeducation session.

Overall, the Opening Ceremony was interesting. One other thing I noticed was that the NBC commentators glossed over some of China’s stickier issues such as human rights violations, a lack of freedom of religion, censorship and the communist nature of the government. Perhaps they were instructed not to draw attention to these items? I am sure that the Chinese Government had a hand in how the telecast was shaped and what was broadcast.

*The above photoshopped image was found on Michelle Malkin’s Blog and done by Lundedesigns.