So I was sitting outside yesterday, fiddling with my camera and waiting for a friend when a ~9ish year old Chinese boy marches up to me. He’s filled with the impetuous nervousness that can only come from being compelled to conduct a survey in a foreign language for his (presumably) 3rd grade “One China” class. Our exchange follows, all the while he’s filling out a piece of paper on a clipboard:

Adorable boy: Hello! (in English)

Me: Hello (Chinese)

Adorable boy: (switches over to Chinese) What are your feelings about China having won the most gold medals at the Olympics?

Me: Oh. I think it’s great. China has amazing athletes in a lot of events, and they prepared very well.

Adorable boy: What’s your favorite sport?

Me: Beach volleyball.

Adorable boy: Thank you! (back to English again)

He runs off. I feel sort of warm and fuzzy. But why did he care what I thought?

The cost of the Olympics (~$40 billion plus, not accounting for any of the commerce stoppage to greenify greater Beijing) can’t be justified in any direct economic / development sense – there’s a pervasive commentary here that ‘a successful Olympics will increase global recognition of China.’ Yes it may convince some investors to build a few more factories, but that wasn’t exactly the point. Such opinions are necessarily filtered through eyes like mine that barely understand Chinese culture.

So why does everyone everywhere else think that Beijing 08 was a theatrical performance; a glorified dinner invitation to a world many here still feel shamed by? The glam and show was never directly about the world’s perception – only its tacit approval that ‘yes, you did it right.’ This wasn’t because ‘China’ needed affirmation or recognition, but because it would indicate that they were capable:

… Chinese culture has always been inherently exhibitionist. When guests come over, put the best out on the table (even if that means starving) – not only for them, but for yourself, your own honor. And while I always grew up thinking the idea of “mianzi” – best translated as “regard in the eyes of others” – to be both impractical and insecure, I’m slowly beginning to value the idea of it more and more, understanding the somewhat crude logic of it all: you illustrate a showy ideal, not to be deceptive or even superficial, but in hopes that in the process of it all, the outward display will develop into an inward reality. Perhaps the more literal interpretation of jingshen is appropriate here as jing refers to the physical and structural and shen the spirit.

Indeed. That comes from fellow Fulbrighter Ray Deng. The rest of the piece of equally brilliant and accessible.

Viewed through such a lens, it might be more clear why there was an extremely negative (and genuinely hurt) reaction against the torch protests earlier this year; or why it was so critically important to many here that the Olympics went smoothly. The ‘China coming out party’ narrative that has dominated Western media is only partially correct – the approval sought is not one of permission, but rather a search for signals that they are on the right path, to modernization at least. It remains to be seen exactly what vision will dominate longer-term efforts.