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rffrydr
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 Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:29 pm Post subject: The Olympics |
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The Summer Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to open on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 p.m
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chestnutstime
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| Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:28 pm Post subject: |
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Henry,
Thanks for your quick reply. Surely, I feel that most overseas Chinese are so proud of their Chinese heritage because of China's recent quick rise.
But, the China Story told by Wall Street has some fatal flaws IMHO. Some of the best Scholars/deep thinkers in China strongly believe that a large-scale civil war in mainland China is inevitable, unless the Chinese Communist Party can embrace real democratic political reforms as quickly as possible.
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Chestnut,
The internet is a good outlet for those that want to disagree and to voice their concerns. This is a very sensitive topic so I will leave this short. We all acknowledge that China has a poor human rights record and it is not something that any of us can be very proud of (that is why virtually all my Chinese friends that are now working in Greater China have foreign passports). What I was solely discussing was China's place in the world - especially for those Chinese with nationalistic sentiment and who want to make significant and positive contributions to the world going forward. The event itself was a monument - a monument to Chinese ingenuity, technology, and creativity. China is now graduating the most engineers and scientists in the world today (although I do admit most of them did not get very high quality educaitons). China is now the biggest manufacturer of solar panels, and will soon start to export automobiles around the world.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080809/FOREIGN/540796283/1135
Like I said, this was a very first and basic step. Going forward, the road to sustainable growth is through structural reforms at the institutional level (starting with defining fundamentals rights of Chinese citizens), as I said earlier.
| Quote: | | It is about becoming a true global citizen - starting with cultivating talent at the science, public policy, and financial levels and bringing on fundamental reforms at the institutional level. From my perspective, it is also about being a driver of sustainable Schumpeterian Growth - such as new breakthroughs in environmental clean-up technologies, green tech, biotech, or in material sciences. It is a long and hard road, but they know what it takes and the sacrifices that need to be made. Hopefully, they won't rest on their laurels after the 2008 Olympics Games is over - it is simply a first, and very basic step. |
Best regards,
Henry |
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chestnutstime
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| Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | For now - and for the fist time in 250 years - a Chinese citizen can sincerely and truthfully say that he/she is proud to be a Chinese citizen. |
I am afraid that billions of Chinese people will disagree with you on that.
Some of the most popular sentences circling Internet Chatrooms in China today are the following:
(1)"做官要做中国官，做人要做美国人"
To be a Chinese official if you want to be an official, and to be an American if you want to be a human being.
(2) "所有人生来都是美国人，只不过其中一些人被训练成中国人了。"
All were born as Americans but some were trained to become Chinese.
(3) "生在中国，长在中国，祸不单行啊。"
To be born and grow up in China is a double sadness.
(4) "中国人活都不怕，还怕死吗？"
We Chinese are not afraid of living and how can we be afraid of dying?
(5) "我就像一只趴在玻璃窗上的苍蝇，前途光明，道路没有."
Like a fly on a window, I've got bright future but no way to it.
Normal Chinese people so disapprove of their government that anything the government promotes people are highly likely to hate. For example, a lot of Chinese people are so disappointed by the openning ceremony of 2008 Beijing Games and they had posted thosands if not millions criticising comments in chatrooms. The Chinese Internet Police Force have been so busying with deleting efforts, and in the end they couldn't just keep up with people's posts, and eventually they ordered sites to shut down commenting function. Chinese call Bejing Olympics as "Misfortune Games" (厄运会）, which has almost similar pronunciation as Olympic Games （奥运会).
Chestnut |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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In light of rffrydr's discussions on the Olympics, it is time to revisit some historical stats:
http://english.cri.cn/4026/2008/06/24/1721@372500.htm
| Quote: | As host country to the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, Spain yielded a great harvest in terms of market income. In particular, the Olympics boosted local tourism. In 1992, the coastal city ranked 16th among Europe's Top Tourism Cities, but after the Games, Barcelona jumped to the third position. However, the tourism boom was overshadowed by an economic downturn. On top of that, the local property market suffered dramatically by the Games. Soaring prices had a negative impact on the accessibility and affordability of housing.
Post Olympic downturns have also been experienced here in Asia. After the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the economies in both Japan and South Korea slowed by more than 2 percent on a year-on-year basis. In contrast, both nations had been enjoying double-digit growth in the run-up to the Olympics.
One of the sponsors of the Beijing Games, the Bank of China, has carried out a study of 12 Olympic Games spanning 60 years. In nine of the 12 Olympics, the hosts' annual GDP growth during the eight years following the Games was 0.4 to 2.5 percent lower than the eight years prior to the event, revealing that an economic slowdown after the mother of all sport meets is commonplace. |
Revisiting the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo:
http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/japans_rebirth_at_the_1964_tokyo_summer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Summer_Olympics |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 1:46 am Post subject: |
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China already won one gold medal in weightlifting. Opening ceremony was awesome - but that wasn't too surprising given the amount of funds and organizational efforts devoted to the Games.
As other Chinese posters can attest to, this "coming out party" is an understatement. Ever since the end of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor to as recent as the 1970s, the Chinese - the economy, technological prowess, and the national pride - has been on a relative decline. Given the achievements of the Chinese over the last 2,500 years and until the mid 18th century, any Chinese citizen that says he/she was proud to be a Chinese must have been either brainwashed or devoid of ambition. By the time China took possession of Hong Kong in 1997, and with the Asia Crisis in full bloom, the country has become too big and influential to ignore. By the early 2000s - as the US and the global tech bubble was faltering, and after China was awarded the Olympic games - it has become a crescendo. In 2005, China's GDP (nominal, not on a PPP basis) surpassed that of Great Britain, and ranked number four in the world behind the US, Japan, and Germany. By the end of this year, China's nominal GDP would surpass that of Germany's.
Obviously, there is still a lot of work to do going down the road. "Social harmony" remains the long-term goal but this would involve further reforms across the board - not just economic but structural reforms that include a focus on the environment, reforms at the provincial levels, educational reforms, legal reforms, etc. The fall of the Qing Dynasty and the overall dynastic system proved that it was dangerous to rely on "great men" to run such a large country for as long as they live (Qianlong himself was a very good Emperor but turned senile as he got older and continued to hold on to power even he had officially abdicated). At the same time, the country's leadership is fearful of great change at the governmental level given the giant amount of bloodshed since the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The Communist Party is in name only obviously - but it is a model somewhat based on the old dynastic system with some major differencies: Great men at the top are elected by other great men - and no one holds onto power forever. There is no absolute power, but there doesn't need to be as the modern transition of power is relatively smooth and requires no bloodshed.
For now - and for the fist time in 250 years - a Chinese citizen can sincerely and truthfully say that he/she is proud to be a Chinese citizen. For the true nationalist, that dream is still very far away, but China is slowly getting there. It is not about having the world's richest men (e.g. Mexico, Russia, etc.) or the world's largest standing army. It is about becoming a true global citizen - starting with cultivating talent at the science, public policy, and financial levels and bringing on fundamental reforms at the institutional level. From my perspective, it is also about being a driver of sustainable Schumpeterian Growth - such as new breakthroughs in environmental clean-up technologies, green tech, biotech, or in material sciences. It is a long and hard road, but they know what it takes and the sacrifices that need to be made. Hopefully, they won't rest on their laurels after the 2008 Olympics Games is over - it is simply a first, and very basic step. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:00 am Post subject: |
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And they're off!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/beijing-olympic.html
....the Shanghai not in tow. That the govt. didn't goose the market may be a sign of the maturity they hope to be celebrating. Time will tell if economics follows the denouement of the great Chicago Worlds Fair at the end of the last Millenia. (check out the American Experience doc).
Monuments are endings.
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chestnutstime
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rffrydr
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chestnutstime
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:01 am Post subject: |
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"One world..."
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
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rffrydr
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HenryTo
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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