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CHINA: All the World's Stage

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Aug 8 2008 (IPS) - All the world is a stage and for a few mesmerising hours on Friday night that stage was China’s. Doubts over China as Olympic host faded away, at least temporarily, as the organisers delivered a fitting tribute to the mystery and sophistication of Chinese civilisation.

Led by Oscar-nominated director Zhang Yimou, a cast of 15,000 artists performed a magical stroll through China’s 5,000-year-old history, tapping into the outside world’s fascination for the Middle Kingdom. And for as long as the sparkles of fireworks held and a few lingering moments after, the Beijing games were not about politics and not even about the rise of a new superpower. It was about rebirth.

The ceremony is a deeply felt celebration of China’s renaissance, says Prof. Jin Yuanpu, president of the humanistic Olympic studies center at Renmin University. It had poetry and romantic charm unseen in any previous Olympic ceremonies. I can confidently say there has never been a more successful attempt to express the essence of Chinese culture to the outside world."

For months before the beginning of the games the opening ceremony had been a focal point of strife about China’s credentials as an Olympics host. Human rights activists had called on political leaders to boycott the party as an expression of condemnation of China’s alleged human right abuses. Celebrated U.S. director Steven Spielberg resigned as an artistic adviser to the ceremony in protest over China’s record in the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur.

I believe that beside the Darfur element there was also Spielberg’s reluctance to endorse a piece of what many predicted would be an artful propaganda about China’s rise and its imposed national unity, said one foreign media relations advisor to the Olympics who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Skeptics have predicted a hotchpotch of well worn cliché symbols of Chinese culture mixed with an obligatory display of joyful dances by the country’s 56 ethnic groups. Such shows are often performed in the country to illustrate China’s success at achieving national harmony.

The perception of the games as a political showcase has not been helped by the fact that Chinese leaders were the first to infuse hosting the Olympic games with political significance. They have made no secret of their desire to use the Olympics as an endorsement of the ruling communist party’s achievements in modernising and transforming China into a significant world player over the last 30 years.

When China was awarded the games in 2001, the official news agency Xinhua hailed the move as recognition of the "renaissance" that occurred after the late patriarch Deng Xiaoping imposed his vision of a market-led economy. Conveniently enough, the Beijing Olympics coincide with the 30th anniversary of Deng’s reforms and has provided the leadership with an opportunity to stoke enthusiasm for its rule.

Through the Olympics Chinese rulers are seeking to prove to their subjects that this is the dawn of a new golden age for China, says Liu Junning, an analyst with the Chinese Cultural Studies Institute in Beijing. ‘’To the outside world they want to say: pay attention because a new superpower has arrived.’’

Despite expectations that the opening ceremony might dwell on China’s victimisation by foreign powers in the past and seek validation of the country’s rapid rise as a world player, what enfolded in reality was different. The show delivered a surprise, scoring points unexpected perhaps even by the games organisers who have for months tried with mixed results, to put China’s best foot forward.

The extravaganza dwelled on China’s high points of ancient civilisation as never seen before. From the enormous mass scenes and rich elaborate costumes down to the smallest details of calligraphy strokes everything bore the signature mark of China’s most famous director Zhang Yimou.

Eschewing convention and defying gravity, Zhang staged a show where people flew to the stars and the stars descended to earth. Every move, colour and musical note was imbued with Chinese essence.

It began with the spellbinding sound of 2008 Chinese drums filling the bird’s nest-shaped National Stadium and spilling over its brim. Volcanoes of gold and red fireworks erupted. A shimmering ancient scroll unfolded and a journey through 5,000 years of history began.

Dancers dressed in black slid along the canvass imitating the strokes of Chinese calligraphy. Images of China’s "four great inventions" – paper, printing, compass and gunpowder – followed. A scholarly regiment of 3,000 pupils of Confucius chanted from the sage’s analects while fast-flashing images of Chinese characters’ transformation through the years followed.

The character ‘he’, which means both harmony and peace in Chinese, dominated a dance of wooden blocks used in early forms of printing in China. But before anyone even noticed the printing blocks were gone, replaced by segments depicting China’s journey to the West through the Silk Road and its exploits at sea by the 15th-centry Chinese seafarer Zheng He.

Previous Chinese galas had tried to embrace the enormity and complexity of the Chinese nation by presenting mosaics of its different ethnic cultures. By opting for a journey trough time Zhang Yimou was able to pick and emphasise the best in Chinese history. There were no episodes of recrimination against foreign powers and pointedly no combative scenes of China’s revolutionary past.

The transformation of modern China was played against the magical tunes of China’s most famous pianist Lang Lang. His centre-stage white piano was replaced by the rising sphere of planet earth scaled by acrobats. Positioned on top of it, British musical star Sarah Brightman and Chinese singer Liu Huan sang the Beijing Olympics theme song, ‘You and me’.

On the day of the opening ceremony the official newspaper China Daily had taken a bold guess. The Zhang Yimou brand of ‘Chineseness’ may or may not appeal to every Chinese, an editorial said. But one thing is for sure, the show tonight will find its way into the annals of contemporary China.