‘Betwixt and between’: reflections on the ritual aspects of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics

Abstract

Taking as its point of departure the traditions associated with the Olympic Games, this essay discusses the sentiments and aspirations of a nation ‘betwixt and between’; one that is recovering from a traumatic modern history; is promulgating the ideology of harmony as part of the formation of an intangible social structure; and is experiencing uncertainties in the government about how to fulfil its political vision of establishing a ‘harmonious society’. Specifically, drawing on both anthropological theories of ritual and data collected in Beijing as part of long-term multi-sited fieldwork, the essay looks at three displays of cultural performance during the 2008 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies: ‘Footprints and Five Rings’, ‘Harmony’ and ‘The Memory Tower’. Through analysing how China attempted to use the opening and closing ceremonies as public rituals for realizing its dream of reinventing itself as a nation, and how this ambition has been frustrated and promoted, the essay hopes to demystify China's coming-of-age rite of passage from an anthropological perspective, and to bring a new dimension to the development of concepts of ritual by using Beijing as a case study.

Notes

¹ Gold and Revill, ‘The Cultural Olympiads’, 59. Panegyris is a Greek word, meaning gathering. Specifically, as Gold and Revill put, it was a ‘festive assembly in which the entire people came together to participate in religious sites, sporting and artistic performance.

² From the International Olympic Committee website: http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/ancient/history_uk.asp.

³ Turner, The Forest of Symbols; Turner, The Ritual Process.

⁴ Gluckman, Order and Rebellion, 110–36.

⁵ Moore and Myerhoff, ‘Secular Ritual’, 3.

⁶ Moore and Myerhoff, ‘Secular Ritual’, 3

⁷ Gold and Gold, ‘Athens to Athens’, 39.

⁸ Thomas L. Friedman, ‘A Biblical Seven Years’, International Herald Tribune, August 27, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/opinion/27friedman.html?_r = 1.

⁹ Here Taiji means Taijiquan, a form of Chinese martial art.

¹⁰ There were intermittent international contacts in the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), etc. The Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) experienced a massive foreign invasion.

¹¹ Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, quotes Tylor, 4.

¹² Morris, Anthropological Studies of Religion, 222.

¹³ Leach, Culture and Communication, 49, 55; Morris, Anthropological Studies of Religion, 222–3.

¹⁴ Sit, Beijing, 25.

¹⁵ Fengshui, a system of beliefs about the nature of Heaven and Earth capable of providing benign Qi, energy of life force, that would turn ill luck into good. Fengshui considers it important and auspicious that an imperial palace should be located to the south of a hill, which explains the situation of the Forbidden City to the South of Jingshan.

¹⁶ Turner, The Forest of Symbols, 30.

¹⁷ Comments made during the NBC broadcast of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008.

¹⁸ Howe, ‘Risk, Ritual and Performance’ discusses Geertz.

¹⁹ Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 113; and Geertz quotes Singer, The Great Tradition, 140–182.

²⁰ Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 112–13.

²¹ Taiji means ‘Supreme Ultimate’, a state that reconciles yin and yang, two elements that contradict and complement each other in a natural world, such as with heaven and earth and male and female.

²² BBC live broadcasting of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

²³ Bilmon, ‘The Olympic Movement’.

²⁴ Lewis, Day of Shining Red, 8.

²⁵ Lewis, Day of Shining Red, 38.

²⁶ Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 20.

²⁷ Lewis, Days of Shining Red, 7.

²⁸ ‘The Torch Passes’. The Guardian, August 9, 2008.

²⁹ Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 443.

³⁰ Howe, ‘Risk, Ritual and Performance’.

³¹ Morris, Anthropological Studies of Religion, 231.

³² Howe, ‘Risk, Ritual and Performance’, 76; Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind, 32.

³³ Simon Carr has also commented on this. The Independent, 10 November 2007.

³⁴ Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage.

³⁵ Turner, The Forest of Symbols; Turner, The Ritual Process.

³⁶ Turner, The Forest of Symbols, 99.

³⁷ Turner, The Forest of Symbols, 101.

³⁸ Turner, The Ritual Process, 167.

³⁹ Morris, Anthropological Studies of Religion, 253.

⁴⁰ Turner, The Forest of Symbols, 167.

⁴¹ Humphrey and Laidlaw, The Archetypal Actions, 1.

⁴² Feuchtwang, ‘On Religious Ritual’, 57.

⁴³ Interview with Professor Wang Mingming from Peking University in Beijing on 27 August 2008.

⁴⁴ Fairbank and Goldman, China, 205.

⁴⁵ Fairbank called it a ‘treaty century’, since many treaties had been signed between Western and Chinese governments for the foreign governments to benefit from winning in the battles.

⁴⁶ This is a term used by several interviewees.

⁴⁷ Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 448.

⁴⁸ Maraniss, Rome 1960, xii.

⁴⁹ Ralph Routon, ‘Olympics: Almost Perfect, But Not Quite’. Colorado Springs Independent, August 14, 2008. http://www.csindy.com/gyrobase/Content?oid = oid%3A28534.

⁵⁰ Maraniss, Rome 1960, xi.

⁵¹ Robert J. Samuelson, ‘The Real China Threat’. Washington Post, August 20, 2008, A15.

⁵² Nicholas D. Kristof, ‘China's Rise Goes Beyond Gold Medals’. The New York Times, August 21, 2008). http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,573436,00.html.

⁵³ Oksenberg, ‘China's Political System’, 201.

⁵⁴ Tania Branigan, ‘Olympic Weddings: Chinese Couples Queue to Get Married on Lucky Day’. The Guardian, August 8, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/08/china.olympics20082.

⁵⁵ NetEase (October 16, 2008), also called news.163.com, one of the leading internet news websites in China. http://news.163.com/08/1016/14/4OCOOMT9000120GU.html.

⁵⁶ Zhang Yimou in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency, China, August 8, 2008, reported by Wang Yong. http://news.xinhuanet.com/olympics/2008-08/08/content_9060804.htm.

⁵⁷ This has been discussed with several informants in the UK.