If I go back to Illinois, I'm going back in the sense that Rambo "went back" to Vietnam.
Made In America
From Scottish Parts
The Opening Ceremonies
5:28 pm, 8/8/08
The Opening Ceremonies
I'm having a lot of laughs watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies with a Cold War historian. Nevermind what an obvious Soviet hand-me-down the Chinese national anthem ("March of the Volunteers") is, the narrator just feeds you straight lines as he tries to dance around the gigantic elephants in the room.
"...the Mogao Caves, which are wonderfully preserved Buddhist artworks in a cave in the remote desert..."
"By 'wonderfully preserved' he means that the caves were too far away for the government to destroy during the Cultural Revolution."
(dancers using their bodies to paint a traditional Chinese artwork on a giant canvas)
"So, if they're taking us through Chinese history here, when they get to Mao, are they going to come out and set that painting on fire?"
They are putting on an impressive show, but I can hardly wait to see how they deal with it when they get to about 1940.
Update: They skipped it. They cut right from the medieval era to 1978. Dead serious.
I'm having a lot of laughs watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies with a Cold War historian. Nevermind what an obvious Soviet hand-me-down the Chinese national anthem ("March of the Volunteers") is, the narrator just feeds you straight lines as he tries to dance around the gigantic elephants in the room.
"...the Mogao Caves, which are wonderfully preserved Buddhist artworks in a cave in the remote desert..."
"By 'wonderfully preserved' he means that the caves were too far away for the government to destroy during the Cultural Revolution."
(dancers using their bodies to paint a traditional Chinese artwork on a giant canvas)
"So, if they're taking us through Chinese history here, when they get to Mao, are they going to come out and set that painting on fire?"
They are putting on an impressive show, but I can hardly wait to see how they deal with it when they get to about 1940.
Update: They skipped it. They cut right from the medieval era to 1978. Dead serious.
at 08:59 PM, 8/8/08
Dunk me in the water,
Wash me in the Yangtzse,
Drop me in the river,
No more painful history...
Dunk me in the water,
Wash me in the Yangtzse,
Drop me in the river,
No more painful history...
Dairenn Lombard at 10:29 AM, 8/11/08
One of the most annoying aspects of the Olympics has always been it's pervasive political correctness and "ignorance is bliss" approach to the world's good guys and bad guys. This is hailed as the one time the world can come together in peace and harmony the way all the feel-good "progressive" GroupThink folks would have you believe the world should work. This is supposed to be the image of what a world like that could look like, even if they have to lie about the horrible realities of some of these places and their dreadful histories.
One of the most annoying aspects of the Olympics has always been it's pervasive political correctness and "ignorance is bliss" approach to the world's good guys and bad guys. This is hailed as the one time the world can come together in peace and harmony the way all the feel-good "progressive" GroupThink folks would have you believe the world should work. This is supposed to be the image of what a world like that could look like, even if they have to lie about the horrible realities of some of these places and their dreadful histories.
at 01:01 AM, 8/16/08
China is not the same place it was under Mao. You can call them commies if you want, but a) it's more complicated than that and b) they aren't very collectivist, unless you're listening to David Brooks. The party line - and in this case, it's a proper Party Line - is that Mao was 60% right... which means (though they don't put it this way) he was 40% wrong.
Skipping '40-'78 could be seen as a positive sign. Maybe they want to put "the late unpleasantness" behind them, and truly join the community of nations. A celebratory history of the US would omit some negative episodes in our history, and rightly so. I haven't met a lot of Chinese who are big on talking about the Cultural Revolution.
And yes, I am biased. I've spent most of the past four years living there, I'm on my way back, and they love Americans.
China is not the same place it was under Mao. You can call them commies if you want, but a) it's more complicated than that and b) they aren't very collectivist, unless you're listening to David Brooks. The party line - and in this case, it's a proper Party Line - is that Mao was 60% right... which means (though they don't put it this way) he was 40% wrong.
Skipping '40-'78 could be seen as a positive sign. Maybe they want to put "the late unpleasantness" behind them, and truly join the community of nations. A celebratory history of the US would omit some negative episodes in our history, and rightly so. I haven't met a lot of Chinese who are big on talking about the Cultural Revolution.
And yes, I am biased. I've spent most of the past four years living there, I'm on my way back, and they love Americans.
Aaron at 06:04 PM, 8/25/08
Doc - Certainly right. It's not a value judgement on their handling of it, it was just hilariously awkward, regardless of whether it's good or bad. I'd love to have had a mic in the meeting where they made that decision.
It's certainly hard to imagine a "history of America" ceremony (nevermind that it's difficult to imagine America putting on quite the nationalist spectacle China did for these Olympics) that skipped the entire period between the Revolution and World War II, just to avoid addressing Native Americans, the Civil War, and the end of slavery.
Doc - Certainly right. It's not a value judgement on their handling of it, it was just hilariously awkward, regardless of whether it's good or bad. I'd love to have had a mic in the meeting where they made that decision.
It's certainly hard to imagine a "history of America" ceremony (nevermind that it's difficult to imagine America putting on quite the nationalist spectacle China did for these Olympics) that skipped the entire period between the Revolution and World War II, just to avoid addressing Native Americans, the Civil War, and the end of slavery.
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