Experiencing the Beijing Olympics on a Daily Basis

There are only three more days to go for the Beijing Olympics. Flags of different colors are flying on the streets and along highways in Beijing. Flags normally include slogans such as "one world, one dream," and "Beijing 2008" with the Olympic rings and images of the five mascots, which are called Fuwa (babies of happiness) in Chinese. There are fewer people now on the street in Beijing probably because many migrant workers have already gone home. Traffic control measures are implemented to improve the air quality in Beijing. Radio programs discuss how people learn to carpool with each other.

Inside competition venues, things are getting busier and busier. More and more people from other countries, including official delegates, journalists, athletes and coaches, are seen in various competition sites. Buses transport people back and forth from venues to IBC and MPC. In Chaoyang Park, beach volleyball players have the training schedules from 9am to 12pm.

Many volunteers patiently provide help with smiles. As a flash quote reporter for beach volleyball, I have the opportunity to speak with many athletes and coaches. Most people I spoke with expressed their satisfaction with the Beijing Olympic village, the court, and the Olympic preparations in Beijing. For example, I had a nice conversation with Kerri Walsh, the U.S. gold medalist for the 2004 Olympics stated on August 5 and Walsh stated:

"The sand is great. We haven't seen the major stadium yet. Everyone is being very helpful. The Olympic village is the best village I have ever stayed. This is the third of my Olympics... We are so excited and honored to be here. You never know if you are going to make the Olympics. We really are expecting Beijing and China to put on a major show. We feel very special to be here and be part of it."

Levan Akhvlediai, Georgia Team Leader for beach volleyball and the President of the Georgian Volleyball Association stated yesterday, "Not everyone will win at the Olympics. What those who lose will take home is the smile of the Chinese people." Journalists who have access to INFO 2008, the Olympic news service that accredited journalists from all over the world use, can find a huge number of flash quotes that express athletes and coaches' excitement, delightful impressions and pleasant experiences in Beijing. To use one Chinese news editor's word, it is the "people to people's interaction that matters."

On a daily basis, I work with six volunteers from Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia and four Chinese flash quote reporters who are second-year students at Beijing Foreign Language Studies University. We also hire one sport information specialist from Britain and one journalist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our job is to interview players and coaches to get flash quotes so that accredited journalists can write reports about beach volleyball without having to be here. The flash quotes are normally reviewed by the information specialist and a Chinese editor before they are released on the INFO system.

While my personal experience might be biased and incomplete, I feel that the great majority of Olympic workers have the general sense that they are here to help host a successful Olympics. They want journalists, athletes, official delegates and others to have a pleasant and memorable experience in China. I write not to minimize the importance of issues such as human rights, pollution, corruption and politics, but rather to indicate that there is a general disconnect between what I experience and what I read in many Western media reports. For many people who do not have the opportunity to come to China personally, mere exposure to negative news will only produce biased people with incomplete knowledge regarding China.

(Photos 1 and 2: Training Court at the Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground)

(Photo 3: It was me standing at a beach volleyball training court)

For those who are interested in our communication on the site, it is very interesting that loud speakers were used in the last few months to communicate issues of general concerns. Every morning at 8:30am, there is also loud speaker playing rhythmic music to encourage people to do morning exercises together, which reminds me of my college life in Beijing University.

Comments

[Calinative]

"there is a general disconnect between what I experience and what I read in many Western media reports."

Western media reports, like ones found on this site, are still banned in China. That says a lot.

[edtastic]

The Western reports represent distortions, exaggerations, and outright lies. That is how they sell newspapers, that is how they get hits on the blog. For profit journalism has made everything in America subject to tabloid like behavior. There is no integrity, anything that sells is good to print. So the people are made fearful of all they cannot see. To live a life in constant suspicion of threats that only the News Media seems to understand.

You can't take small events on television and assume it represents the character of a whole country. America has to grow up.