Absurdity, Allegory and China

Very good essay at The China Beat blog by James Leibold entitled “Whose People’s Games? Ethnic Identity and the 2008 Beijing Olympics”

This sort of chauvinism is largely hidden and subconscious. Take for example, the use of Han actors to portray the minority children at the opening ceremony. Facing criticism from the foreign media, BOCOG vice-president Wang Wei dismissed the incident as “not worth mentioning” and “completely normal” in Chinese tradition. But few Chinese would have missed the powerful symbolism of a red-dressed Han girl singing the emotive “Ode to the Motherland” (gechang zuguo) from an elevated stage as the colourful “native” children paraded before her and the all-Han BOCOG officials before saluting the motherland’s flag. It would seem that the Han man’s burden was nearly fulfilled; but not all bloggers were happy. Several complained about the Han girl’s Western style dress and the Manchu derived “horse jacket” (magua) and “riding gown” (qipao) that other Han performers were wearing. These foreign styles, it was claimed, diluted the traditional essence of Chinese (zhonghua) culture embodied in the long silk robes of Han clothing (hanfu).

I’d wondered how many ethnic minorities were members of the Chinese Olympic Team, and I found out here: 42 out of 639, or 6.5% of the team – a close approximation of the minority representation in the general population – and they ended up scoring 6% of the medals.

This is a good read.