The Olympics.
People keep asking me how my everyday life is effected by the up and coming Olympics and I'll tell you...it penetrates every aspect of my life. Everything from the diet coke I drink everyday, to yogurt to people's clothing (yes I saw a girl with jeans with the Olympic rings sewn on the butt) is littered with Olympic paraphernalia. You can barely walk a block without seeing a sign that says “同一个世界，同一个梦想“ (One world, One dream) and sometimes I think that if Beijing could name itself after the Olympics it would. It's not so much 'exciting' as I would say, fascinating, that a city (hell, an entire country) with over 3000 years of cultural history would place all of its energies into a modern event.
This is 'traditional' Chinese paper cutting. Normally you would see things like zodiac animals or good luck symbols. These however, are paper cuttings of the Olympic mascots, little pandas. If you find a street with peddlers its almost guaranteed there will be at least 5 seeling keychains, stuffed animals or t-shirts with these pandas on it.
This is a more clear picture of the mascots. Their names are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, YingYing, and Nini--which together essentially mean "Beijing Welcomes You" I like the green one! Also worth noting are the Cube and the Birds Nest--two newly built sports centers that I've heard many a taxi driver refer to as "nan kan" (ugly)
Perhaps more interesting however are the preparations that aren't overtly Olympic but somehow you know they're related to the Olympics. For instance there's construction going on all overt the place. You Minnesotans might be familiar with the saying that Minnesota has two seasons Winter and Construction...but this is a little different because as far as I can tell most of the construction is for aesthetic reasons not functional. I've seen a lot of facade restorations and painting going on. Also, Beijing, notoriously known for its um...creative... English spellings and translations is changing the signs at all of the primary touristy sights to be more correct. Food prices are going up , visa availability is going down, subways are being built, not to mention our Chinese lessons can always be SOMEHOW tied to the Olympics (that or Gaigekaifang yi hou). Somehow you know that its latent in every business decision...the buzz among the masses ...it's just everywhere.
I don't know... all of this sort of reminds me of parent's weekend at UPS. The grounds workers cut the grass all extra nice, and the sub serves all the good food. Beijing preparing for the Olympics is a lot the same way--it might not be an exact reflection of the way things really are.
This post wasn't as cool as I wanted it to be.
Tuesday, May 6
奥运会
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3 comments:
I kind of know what you mean - Delhi is the same about the Commonwealth Games, although on a slightly smaller scale since it's a smaller event that's a bit further away. Everything is going towards the Metro that won't actually work that well in the city anyway, building hotels, freaking out about graffiti on national monuments and the fact that people actually live around them, trying desperately to not seem like a 3rd world country while not spending any money on actually changing anything worthwhile like sanitation... it's crazy.
Ah Peking and Delhi have learned: appearence is substance, CNN is reality, be transformed and live in the virtual world.
Thanks Elizabeth for doing this for me, I find it so interesting! The mascots are super cute...but maybe it's just cause I love love love pandas. i miss you tons!
<3<3
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