Asian America’s Opening Ceremonies
August 15, 2008
The jaw-dropping spectacle of the Beijing Olympics’ Opening Ceremony on Aug. 8 dazzled audiences around the world. The expectations kept ratcheting higher, but China fulfilled them all. As the ceremony demonstrated, China is proving itself to be a world power in technology, finance, creative arts, and sheer manpower.
Even with its 5,000-year history, China maintains pride and a sense of history, as shown at the Opening Ceremony where it displayed technological prowess along with traditional culture.
How can we tap into this country on the rise and its booming economy? By utilizing our Asian American heritage. We transpacific Asian Americans understand the cultural nuances of the East and that of the West. We don’t need to have read Confucius or Lao Tze - we were raised with and lived in that culture. We understand it and American modernity intuitively.
We should use our knowledge to serve as a bridge to the growing economies of Asia.
Larry Shinagawa at the University of Maryland is conducting research that shows the future of Asian Pacific America is bicultural - and those who have best navigated the clash of the West and East find the most success. Being bicultural is our strength as a community.
During the Opening Ceremony, China demonstrated how it has embraced modernity while retaining its rich cultural heritage. That is what we as Asian Americans must remember to do in order to thrive professionally in our careers.
*****Keeping up with Olympics:*****
2008 Beijing Olympics Meet Your Asian American Olympians!
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Impressive, very impressive those ceremonies, even if you throw in the gripes about faked fireworks, lip synching with a girl who had perfect teeth, and the fact that most of the performers were in the Army. Quite a contrast to the usual story about cheap Chinese goods, this show certainly puts the superbowl and US olympic openings to shame. I’ve never watched a ceremony where I constantly asked myself HOW IN THE HECK DID THEY DOOOO THAT???? We (heck the entire west) don’t have stadiums with a big trap door, a 2 block long LED display, or a projection screen that goes all around the inside of the stadium, or wireworks that let performers fly all around. All the dresses on those ladies are expensive even if they’re made in China. Now if they could just ditch that silly communism thing….
Funny, they don’t LOOK jewish….
From one of my favorite conservative blogs
http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-olympic-fakery-exposed-ethnic.html
More Olympic Fakery Exposed: Ethnic Children Belonged To One Group
Posted: 15 Aug 2008 12:01 PM CDT
Another portion of the Beijing Olympics has been exposed as being faked. The opening ceremony included a segment which supposedly showed children from 56 different ethnic groups. The problem is, they were all from the same ethnic group.
The children were seen surrounding the national flag and were supposed to represent China’s 56 ethnic groups.
The Telegraph reports that the children were dressed in different costumes all associated with China’s ethnic minorities, meant to display “national unity”, yet in reality, all the children were from the same ethnic group, the Han Chinese which is the majority ethnic group in China making up over 90 percent of the population.
The official guide to the opening ceremony said that the children did not just represent but “came from” China’s ethnic groups.
“Fifty-six children from 56 Chinese ethnic groups cluster around the Chinese national flag, representing the 56 ethnic groups,” it said.
When the executive vice-president of the Beijing organizing committee, Wang Wei, was asked about the misrepresentation, his reply was, “I think you are being very meticulous,” and he claimed it was traditional to use dancers from other ethnic groups in this way. He continued on to say, “I would argue it is normal for dancers, performers, to be dressed in other races’ clothes. I don’t know exactly where these performers are from.”
It may very well be traditional in Wei’s mind, but given the statement from the official guide to the opening ceremonies saying outright that the children did not just represent the minority ethnic groups but were actually from those specific ethnic groups, the two statements do not coincide.
This is just the latest news in fakery which surrounds the Beijing Olympics.
It was reported previously that the girl that sang “Hymn to the Motherland” was actually faking it and it was really sung by a child that was deemed not pretty enough to appear in front of the crowd. It was also reported that the footprint fireworks show that was televised internationally was also digitally enhanced and pre-recorded and not all the footprints seen were real.