Olympic Aspirations: Reconstructed Images, National Identity and International Integration

Abstract

The 2008 Olympic Games is so significant in reconstructing Chinese nationalism as well as reshaping the state-society relationship because in the single year of 2008 most of the political mobilization and social movements were driven by the games; most of the focusing events (e.g. accidents and disasters) are redirected or reinterpreted due to the games; most of the contradictions and conflicts are concealed or exposed under the name of the games. Both the authorities and the public faced more opportunities, challenges and pressures from the domestic and international community because of the games. The reconstruction of Olympic-mobilized nationalism then lies in such dynamic official and popular responses and also reflects transforming state-society relationships.

Notes

[1] Xu, Olympic Dreams.

[2] Wei and Liu, Chinese Nationalism in Perspective.

[3] Xinhua News, ‘BOCOG adviser: The Olympics is a turning point for the strategy of promoting the national image’, available at http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-08/04/content_8934954.htm, accessed 11 Oct. 2008.

[4] Brady, ‘The Beijing Olympics as a Campaign of Mass Distraction’.

[5] Zheng, ‘China's “Peaceful Rise” to Great-Power Status’.

[6] Zheng and Sow, ‘Harmonious Society and Harmonious World’.

[7] Callahan, ‘Patriotic Cosmopolitanism’.

[8] Brady, ‘The Beijing Olympics as a Campaign of Mass Distraction’.

[9] Ibid.

[10] During the 2005 anti-Japan protests, the Internet played an essential role in organizing public demonstrations and parades in major cities regarding the time, venue, route, slogans and other instructions. Online messages about real-time protest pictures and information were circulated via Internet forums, BBS, emails, SMS and texts, and called for ongoing recruitment (J. Yardley, ‘A Hundred Cellphones Bloom, and Chinese Take to the Streets’, New York Times, 25 April 2005, avilable at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/international/asia/25china.html, accessed 2 Oct. 2008.

[11]‘Netizen’, a portmanteau of Internet and citizen, was coined by Michael Hauben in 1992 (Hauben and Hauben, Netizens) and refers to people who use Internet resources and engage in online communities through participation, contribution, creation and other responsible actions.

[12] Youtube, ‘Tibet, True face of western media’, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX280NmYrWs, accessed 5 Oct. 2008.

[13] Youtube, ‘Tibet was, is and always will be a part of China’, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNKB34cJo&feature=related, accessed 5 Oct. 2008.

[14]‘Olympic media coverage: China vs West’, BBC News, 10 April 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7340832.stm, accessed 5 Oct. 2008.

[15]‘(L) China: Nationalist netizens on MSN Messenger “heart” China’, Shanghaiist Web-blog, 25 May 2008, available at http://www.chinasupertrends.com/chinas-human-flesh-search-engine-not-what-you-might-think-it-is/, accessed 10 Oct. 2008.

[16]‘Chinese netizens flight against the CNN and other Western media’, Sina BBS [bulletin board system], 28 Mar. 2008, available at http://bbs.sina.com.cn/zt/w/08/attackcnn/index.shtml, accessed 10 Oct. 2008.

[17]‘Chinese netizen discussion of “boycott on French goods”’, People's Daily Online, 15 April 2008, available at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6392966.html, accessed 10 Oct. 2008.

[18] J. Goldkorn, ‘Souvenir of nationalism 2008’, Danwei Web-blog http://www.danwei.org/fashion/too_cnn_tshirts.php, accessed 10 Oct. 2008.

[19] An Internet term: netizens searched out all the private details of leading roles in the cases, and publicized their private information and contacts while calling upon the public to participate in the attacks on individuals, not limited only to discursive abuse but also expanding to insults, disturbance and harassment in real everyday life.

[20] H. Fletcher, ‘Human flesh search engines: Chinese vigilantes that hunt victims on the web’, The Times, 25 June 2008, available at http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4213681.ece, accessed 31 Aug. 2008.

[21] S. Dewan, ‘Chinese Student in US Is Caught in Confrontation’, New York Times, 17 April 2008, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17student.html?_r=1&oref=slogin; X. Eberlein, ‘Human Flesh Search: Vigilantes of the Chinese Internet’, New America Media, 30 April 2008, available at http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=964203448cbf700c9640912bf9012e05; ‘China online: Tibet and torch reaction’, BBC News, 17 April 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7347821.stm, all accessed 15 Oct. 2008.

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[23] Liu, ‘Boomerang Effect of Chinese Internet Nationalism’.

[24] Chow, ‘Internet Activism’.

[25]‘BBC website “unblocked in China”’, BBC News, 25 March 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7312240.stm, accessed 11 Oct. 2008.

[26] Chow, ‘Internet Activism’.

[27] Amnesty International, ‘People's Republic of China: The Olympics countdown – broken promises‘, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA17/089/2008/en/8249b304-5724-11dd-90eb-ff4596860802/asa170892008eng.pdf, accessed 11 Oct. 2008.

[28] G. York, ‘Migrant workers feel like “slaves” to Beijing's Olympic projects’. The Globe and Mail, 17 Mar. 2008, available at http://www.david-kilgour.com/2008/Mar_17_2008_09.htm, accessed 11 Oct. 2008.

[29]K. Bu, ‘Beijing Olympic clean up sweeps out migrant workers’, Reuters, 21 July 2008, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olympics/idUSSP26521520080721, accessed 1 Oct. 2008.

[30] Broudehoux, ‘Spectacular Beijing’.

[31] Because many of them lived in the old welfare houses provided by their former work-units and now faced either sale or reconstruction of the factory/dormitory sites, they could become direct sufferers under the power-money exchange between urban planners and estate developers and with SOE managers sometimes.

[32] N. Venter, ‘China – Orwell's dream come true’, The Dominion Post, 25 Aug. 2008.

[33]‘Beijing 2008: Intellectuals and activists publish letter on Olympic Games and human rights’, Asia News, 8 September 2007, available at http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=10047, accessed 15 Oct. 2008.

[34] Zhang, ‘China's National Interests’.

[35] Xu, Olympic Dreams, 1-3.

[36] Brady, ‘The Beijing Olympics as a Campaign of Mass Distraction’.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Zheng, Globalisation and State Transformation in China: 87.

[39] Makeham, Lost Soul, 316–30.

[40] Ramo, Brand China.

[41]‘Spokesperson: Beijing authorities receive 77 demonstration applications since Aug. 1’, Xinhua News, 18 August 2008, available at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/18/content_9468325.htm, accessed 15 Oct. 2008.

[42]‘Attention paid to the national mourning day’, Sina News, 18 May 2008, available at http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-05-18/233515566932.shtml, accessed 15 Oct. 2008.

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[44] Zhu et al., Responsibility, Action and Cooperation.

[45] Gao, ‘New Developments in Civil Society’.

[46] Cai, ‘Use the Olympic Games’.

[47] Barmé, ‘China's Flat Earth’.

[48] Pramod, ‘The Spectacle of the Beijing Olympics’.

[49] Ibid.; Owen, ‘The Sydney 2000 Olympics’.

[50] The label for educational curricula and activities about the Olympic Games.

[51] Brownell, ‘Beijing's Olympic Education Programme’.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Zhang, ‘Using an International Language’.

[54] Fewsmith, China since Tiananmen, 161.

[55] Vickers, ‘Selling “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”’.

[56] Wacker, China and the Internet, 70; Hughes, ‘Nationalism in Chinese Cyberspace’.

[57] Mengin, Cyber China, 7.

[58] Fan, Fan, ‘Citizens’ groups step up in China’.

[59] Xu, Olympic Dreams.

[60] Yu et al.,‘Governing Security at the 2008 Beijing Olympics’.

[61] Pramod, ‘The Spectacle of the Beijing Olympics’.

[62] Fewsmith, China since Tiananmen, 13.

[63] S. Ho, ‘Chinese Nationalism May Tarnish Beijing Olympics’, Voice of America. 24 April 2008, available at http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-04/2008-04-24-voa21.cfm?CFID=228578772&CFTOKEN=19523434&jsessionid=66307b65f9c6943402a6782e7d76575641d3, accessed 5 May 2009.

[64] They are usually defined as nationalistic to a certain extreme, even fanatical, with the mood of indignation and radicalism.

[65] Hvistendahl, ‘Hooking Up’.

[66] J. Bajoria, ‘Nationalism in China’, Council on Foreign Relations Web-blog, http://www.cfr.org/publication/16079/nationalism_in_china.html, accessed 10 Oct. 2008.

[67] Shirky, Here Comes Everybody.

[68] Eberlein, ‘Human Flesh Search’.

[69] Y. Liang, ‘The moral foundation of anti-corruption in China’, China Weekly, 16 February 2005, available at http://www.china-week.com/html/2417.htm, accessed 10 Sept. 2008.

[70] Chang, The Coming Collapse of China, 67.

[71] Wang, ‘Changing Models’.

[72] Tai, The Internet in China, 259.

[73] Ibid., xiii.