Talking with two native Beijingers

Talking with two native Beijingers

 

 

 

I’ve been out of Beijing for two days now. I’m staying with a friend in Hong Kong, where the large plasma screens all over the city have the Games on. Looking from the outside now it was quite an experience to be in the epicenter- being able to sit in the Bird’s Nest, witness the breaking of world records, and rub shoulders with the Olympic athletes I now see on TV.

On my last day in BJ I decided we have heard enough foreign commentary. What about the laobaixing? (literally the Old Hundred Names, or the common people.) What do Chinese people think of the Games in Beijing? I dedicated my last day to walking through Hutongs, sitting on subways and starting up conversations with strangers about the 2008 Olympics. And here are a few things that I observed:

Laobaixing Playing Chinese Chess

Laobaixing Playing Chinese Chess

First, I have taken pains to keep the identity safe of the people I “interviewed.” The opinions I am writing were all revealed during private conversations. I will only give a brief introduction of the background of every person. It is quite possible that the people that criticized the Olympics could be in trouble if the government found out their identities. For example, I tried to interview an owner of a minority restaurant. When I asked if it would be ok to write about his restaurant and opinions in my blog he immediately closed up. It was obvious he was afraid to reveal his identity publicly. “Why post my opinions? It’s of no use.” This is evidence of how difficult it is to get real opinions from the common people. This is relatively new to me, as last year I interviewed over 20 people on politics and online gaming and only one was unwilling to reveal their full identity. My guess is this has to do with how sensitive the Olympics are right now.

The first person I interviewed worked a few years in Holland. She returned to China for the Olympics because, in her words, she has “a Chinese heart” and wanted to return to Beijing, her hometown, to cheer for her country.  I was waiting for a friend at a subway stop when we started up a conversation. She thought it was wonderful that so many foreigners could come to China to see what it was really like. (This was a common theme among all interviewees.) She said that while she was living abroad she ran into people that thought the Chinese still went around wearing blue Mao suites and the political environment was more akin to North Korea. She made it very clear that she was bursting with pride at the accomplishments of her country and the development of her hometown. (She said I could write all this on my blog but refused a picture.)

The second person I interviewed is a professional modern dancer. He said the Olympics is great for China as a whole but in the end cost way too much. He wanted his parents to come visit him during August but had to scrap the plans because getting into the city is nearly impossible. When I asked if there was anything “bad” about the Olympics he emphasized that traffic was too congested. Getting around has become too difficult and he couldn’t wait for the Games to be over. He did like that so many foreigners were able to discover the “real Beijing and China.”

The third and fourth person I talked to are the two old women pictured above. As you can see they are wearing Olympic volunteer uniforms and their opinions were all positive towards the Olympics. For this reason I think it is ok to post their photo. These two old women were bursting with pride about the new Beijing. They were really happy that they could share the successes of their hometown with foreign guests. They were particularly proud about how modern Beijing had come- and they were able to talk about this at length considering they had spent their entire lives in Beijing. They were noticeably ecstatic to talk to a foreigner about their hometown and how much it had changed.

The fifth person I ran into was a middle school gym teacher. He was watching the China-Greece basketball game in his office and we struck up a conversation about the Games. He was beaming with pride as he showed me all the tickets he had bought and the events he had watched. He said he was going to keep all the tickets as momentos of the experience of his lifetime. He did reveal, though, that far too much had been spent on the Games. He said to me, “This is my money. My parent’s money that the government is spending. And for what?” Other than that one aspect he said that the Olympics was a great boost for China’s international prestige.

I remember last year, during my interviews about online gaming, an interviewee asked what good the Olympics does for he cities outside of Beijing? The money spent is from all over China but only Beijinger’s receive the benefits. “Is this fair?” he asked.

The last opinion I want to write about is one that of my good friend. He spends a lot of time scouring the internet for the latest underground news. He is far less optimistic about the Olympics. He has a friend that helped design the Bird’s Nest and apparently it is pretty shoddily made. They discovered so many problems during construction that they had to fix and construct at the same time. The same goes for the airport express shuttle (which I rode- no problems). He also is very angry at the cost of the Olympics which was funded primarily by taxes. “This is my parent’s money! They make nearly nothing and it’s being spent on a sporting event. No one ever asked them if this was ok.” In contrast, I met a woman who is intimately involved with the Chicago bid and she said that the Chicago Olympics is funded only through private donations. In this respect, it is impossible to throw a $40 billion dollar Olympics- and only in an authoritarian state would this be possible. My friend also goes on about how “fake” this new Beijing really is. Migrant workers have been shipped off, the homeless swept away. The hygienic, almost sterile Beijing you see on TV is far removed from the real Beijing that will return after the world’s attention has been diverted away from BJ. “It’s all a show,” he says. “A façade for the foreign eye.”

Either way, in my experience the majority of people in Beijing welcome the Olympics. They know the cost is high but believe the benefits of presenting itself to the world as a developed city is worth it. The reports you read online of Chinese being happy to host the Olympics are, for the most part, accurate. And not just due to political propaganda and indoctrination. It is a heartfelt pride for their country and economic success. Just listen to the deafening roar of the crowd for their athletes. This part, at least, is the “real China.”

Here’s my facebook album of the day:  http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029262&l=dae42&id=14500792

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