Celebrating the Beginning of the Olympics

Beijing’s night to remember begins with a race against the clock to the big screen at Wangfujing, a major shopping and tourist mecca. It’s like New Year’s Eve, except that it’s quite humid. The atmosphere is festive and convivial. There are Chinese and foreigners who are decked out in Olympic glory, and others who are waving around their national flags–loads of Chinese and Olympic flags of course, but South Korea and New Zealand’s are also spotted.

40 seconds to 8:00 p.m. and the screen starts counting down. Everyone chants along. We’re so excited that we actually beat the clock and have to slow down.

At 8:00 p.m. the opening ceremony begins, and the crowd roars. The show looks impressive, but we’re about to miss about half an hour of it as we’re late for meeting up with some friends. As we head out against the people surging in, my friend remarks, “I’m not a nationalist, and in fact before I hated the Olympics, but today I’m glad to be Chinese. I’m proud of what China has accomplished.”

We move over to Nanluoguxiang, a trendy hutong area that is also an official Olympic-designated street, and end up at the wine bar Salud. Nanluoguxiang is remarkably quiet on the outside, but inside Salud, a mix of Chinese and foreigners are noisily drinking, cheering, and avidly watching the opening ceremony.

The show goes by without much comment, with spontaneous applause for particularly beautiful feats of pageantry and people shushing each other to hear the official song sung by Liu Han and Sarah Brightman.

It’s the parade of Olympic delegations, ordered by the number of strokes in the first character of a country’s name, that becomes an opportunity for the crowd to express their sentiments. “Chinese Taipei” and Hong Kong get huge cheers. Underdog countries like Afghanistan and Iraq are cheered as fellow countries who have been oppressed by foreign powers. The sports-mad cheer on Argentina and Switzerland. South Korea gets a cheer, but North Korea’s is much bigger.

France’s appearance on the screen causes the biggest sensation: the bar splits into two factions. One faction cheers, the other boos. Then it escalates: the cheering faction shouting “Go France! (法国加油！) while the other calling France a Chinese obscenity that rhymes with shabby. It gets slightly tense, until President Sarkozy comes onto the screen and the crowd can all boo him with a feeling of relief. After all, no one wants to be the person who ruins the Olympic ceremony for the crowd.

The United States sports team is cheered, but President Bush is roundly booed by one and all.

We’re counting down as Zambia exits and the bar explodes into a cheering and stomping frenzy as China’s delegation, headed by Yao Ming and a young survivor of the Sichuan earthquake, appears on the screen. Everyone is shouting “Go China! (中国加油!)” and a middle-aged man with the look of a businessman and a deep voice (he’s the man on the right in the picture above) stands up. He shouts through the crowd, “China!” and the crowd responds “Go! (加油!)” After a few repetitions, he shouts, “Beijing!” and the crowd responds in kind. Then he invokes the earthquake: “Sichuan! （四川！）” “Go!” “Wenchuan!(汶川！)” “Go!”

The call and response is intense and emotional–from the looks on other people’s faces, it has stirred up a complex range of feelings: pride in China’s accomplishments, sorrow and acknowledgment for what it took to get here, but most of all, a feeling that at this pivotal moment, China has truly made it.

We leave shortly after so that we can watch the fireworks from the rooftop of Fish Nation. It’s quieter here, with people decorously clapping as As Li Ning flies across the Bird’s Nest to light the torch. As we are close to the central axis that goes through Beijing, we hear and see fireworks from Tian’anmen Square and another location, possibly Beijing Train Station.

It’s the perfect ending to a great night.

Fiona Lee is a freelance writer/marketer/blogger based in Beijing. She blogs at QuirkyBeijing.