Quote of the Day

"Asians have different figures than people from the West, so that's what caused their suspicion. They (the media) shouldn't be suspicious."
-- Huang Yubin, head coach of the men's and women's Chinese gymnastics teams.

Us Westerners and our lying eyes. Perhaps it's a sad day when TPBP is so disillusioned with politics that it turns its critical eyes upon the non-sport of gymnastics, but I lived in Asia for three years, and feel pretty comfortable with Asian people's "figures". Additionally, being underemployed has allowed me to view far more of the women's gymnastics competition than I'm comfortable admitting in public. So, after seeing these girls on TV, and having taught literally 1000's of 16 year old Asian kids, I'm calling shenanigans.

Post Script: I fully expect reader 'pw' to provide a 500 word comment (including citations of course) as to why Westerners really are somehow biologically ill-equipped to judge the relative age of everyone on the Asian continent.

Chinese Democracy

A lot has been written about how China will deal with the unprecedented scrutiny that comes with hosting an Olympic games. Some believe that political dissidents will cause disruptions during the games and others that China's government will be able to effectively clamp down on such actions. I'd like to cast my vote firmly for the former. I think the actual degree of dissatisfaction the domestic population has with the Chinese government will be exposed. Here in the west, the Chinese government is often portrayed as being extremely powerful, repressive and monolithic. It's also portrayed as ruthless in terms of dealing with internal political dissidents.

I think we're about to find out how true that portrayal is (and I think it's fair to note that it may not be totally accurate) -- particularly how much domestic dissatisfaction exists with the Chinese government. The Olympics will simply be too good an opportunity for anyone with a serious grudge against the Chinese government to remain silent. And, count me as one of the people that think that the Chinese will find themselves wholly unable to control both the media's access to news stories (particularly of a political nature), as well as the spin that foreign journalists put on such news. I read recently (I can't remember where) that there have been 20,000 press credentials issued for the Beijing games. A media swarm that size will not be controlled, not by the Chinese government, not by anyone. You're talking about a fundamentally entitled bunch. What are the Chinese going to do, detain them by the dozens or hundreds? Confiscate their equipment? Imprison them? If it comes to that (and it might, if there's any story to be had anywhere) it's a lose/lose for the Chinese.

Try to control them and alienate a city of press, or give up control and see where the media run with it, which probably won't be destinations that make China look in any way good. The press, especially the western press, will be looking for an excuse to make the Chinese fit into the totalitarian box that they know will sell the best back home. And if something looks fishy, if just one camera gets confiscated, you'll have gangs of pissed off media determined to get to the bottom of it. I don't think it's impossible that the western media have overstated the level of internal dissent in China and that the games go off without a hitch, but I honestly think that's unlikely. All eyes are about to be on China in a way they never have been before, and I think they're about to rediscover the axiom that almost everybody looks better clothed than naked.