It doesn’t really bother me too much that the “footsteps of history” fireworks display during the Olympics opening-ceremony TV coverage from Beijing turned out to be a computer animation trick.
It’s not like they faked the fireworks themselves. They just “simulated” the broadcast because (they claim) it was necessary in order to see the whole grand effect. NBC’s commentators described it on the air as a “cinematic device” and “almost animation.” Fair enough.
But here’s some amateur video of the real footsteps. They’re still pretty cool. Couldn’t we have just seen those on TV?
Many people apparently thought the broadcast was the real thing:
Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing’s smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.
“Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks,” he said. “But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished.”
Still, I can forgive this one. It’s sort of like how the archer at the Barcelona opening ceremony in 1992 missed the cauldron with his flaming arrow. And Yet The Mighty Olympic Flame Was Magically Lit.
But here are some Chinese (and NBC) Olympic deceptions that genuinely get my kung pao in a wok.
- That lip-synching cutie pie. Have the Chinese learned nothing from American television? That Saturday Night Live lip-synch debacle practically made Ashlee Simpson a B-lister overnight. She’s never going to recover. But now we learn that the 9-year-old girl who “sang” China’s national anthem at the beginning of the opening ceremonies was faking it. Chinese political officials decided at the last minute that the 7-year-old girl whose voice you heard on the broadcast (and whose voice was played in the stadium) was too unattractive to go on television. She had — ready for this? — buck teeth. So they subbed in telegenic little Lin Miaoke instead, even though the younger girl had beaten out thousands of other kids in a year-long competition for the honor.
- The illusion of NBC’s live coverage. At his fabulous “TV Barn” blog, Kansas City Star TV columnist Aaron Barnhardt observes something strange about the Bob Costas / Matt Lauer opening ceremony banter about Russia’s invasion of Georgia. When the athletes from Russia marched into the Bird’s Nest stadium, it hadn’t happened yet. Here’s Barnhardt:
The invasion of Georgia was broken by the AP mid-Friday afternoon in the U.S. With the 13-hour time difference between Kansas and China, that would mean the reports were received in Beijing around 4 a.m. Saturday — hours after the ceremony was over.
It turns out that all the pithy commentary is done as a voice-over, hours after the footage is shot. But the viewers at home don’t have a clue the broadcasters aren’t experiencing the events along with them. That’s the only way Costas and Lauer could have known about the military invasion in time to tell us about it during the Parade of Nations:
- NBC’s airbrushing of Chinese history. I’m going to leave this one to Katherine Goldstein at HuffPo:
Mao is by far most famous, influential and important figure in modern Chinese history, and his picture still hangs prominently in Tiananmen Square. Whenever I’d ask people their opinions of him in my travels in China, they would reply, “he was a great man who made some mistakes.”
OK! So as NBC cuts back in hurriedly from commercial, the China “expert” Josh Cooper Ramo informs us that the program has now reached 1978, as China opens itself up to the world. Um. Wait one second. Did we miss 1949 to 1978 during the commercial break? I don’t think so. It was an understandably calculated move for {director] Zhang [Yimou] to make no reference to Mao — why spoil the debutante ball with references to a leader who was responsible for tens of millions of deaths?
Fine, I get they don’t want to retell the stories of things like the Great Leap Forward, or the Cultural Revolution, where for ten years teenagers wreaked havoc, society shut down and millions were sent to work in the countryside. Leaving out these historical realities when telling this history of modern China is certainly a deliberate PR move, but what is unforgivable is that no one, not even Ramo the China “expert,” said a damn thing about it.
Even more unforgivable: NBC hasn’t told its viewers much about Josh Cooper Ramo, who appears to be a public relations asset of Henry Kissinger’s consulting firm in China. The firm’s job is to soft-pedal Beijing for companies looking to invest in the “new” communist regime.
Lovely. Couldn’t they just have gotten one of my neighbors instead? Mrs. Ming makes a mean dumpling, and she’ll talk your ear off about the Little Red Book. Just buy her a Tsing Tao, and you’re off to the races.
H/T and video streams: “TV Barn”
UPDATE: There are accusations flying around Beijing that the Chinese women’s [sic] gymnastics team may include several athletes who are too young to compete. The U.S. national team coordinator, Martha Karolyi, complained to the International Herald Tribune that “one of the girls has a missing tooth” — suggesting that she was so young that she had lost a baby tooth recently.
UPDATE 2: The Associated Press has a copy of a Xinhua media service report from 2007 describing Chinese a gymnast named He Kexin as 13 years old. This year, she’s supposedly 16. Personally, I just enjoy the gender and religious confusion of watching journalists refer to a teenage girl as “He” (with the Jesus-reminiscent upper case “H”)…
Excellent summary of the various deceptions marketed to the US public. It became obvious while watching the opening ceremonies that the comentators were scripted. Even their inane “ad-lib” banter seemed scripted. I also wondered how the Chinese got away without mentioning Mao, now I know. Pretty lame. The olympic competitions are exciting all on their own. It sucks that China, in colusion with the US, made the opening into a tourism ad. There’ve been dozens of stories about China rounding up dissidents and homeless to keep them off camera. Although a knife murder of an American and the attack on his wife couldn’t be swept under the carpet.
With that said, thanks for posting the video of the real “footsteps.” They were very cool. Why the hell didn’t they just show the real thing? This is typical Chinese government control of what the world is allowed to see.
It’s the Olympics on NBC in China. Was better expected?
1. I’m not sure anything NBC shows is live so I just take it for granted that whatever is on TV has been tape delayed.
2. I would’ve been more interested and therefore cared more about the other side of the opening ceremony’s majesty if I wasn’t offended by NBC throwing commercials at me every five minutes so I started watching Die Hard instead.
3. This is China’s first Olympics which I’m sure the populace is proud of but I’m sure those who weren’t proud have already been rounded up and dealt with.
This doesn’t seem so much like hypocrisy but more of the same, maybe I’m jaded.
The Chi-Coms are being shifty and duplicitous? Say it ain’t so!
The Chinese have taken propaganda to a level that Goebbels and Stalin could never have dreamed of. I have long been convinced that their government pays (or just forces) people to troll around the net and defend their . You can be on a site for years, and never see a single person posting from China - but as soon as a story or blog comes out critical of their government, and suddenly you’ve got 20 of them jumping in to call everyone ‘bigots’ for criticizing the regime.
You can always tell who they are pretty easily, because they pick a simple, American-sounding screen name like ‘John Rice’, yet English is obviously not their first language. Quick tip: if the spelling is perfect but the syntax sucks, they’re most likely not really American. Americans tend to either type very well, or it’s completely illegible l33t-speak. They’re also easy to spot because they all repeat the same tired propaganda and ‘revisionist history’ (propaganda). I always love to force them into an actual debate about Mao, Tibet, their Korean intervention, etc. It’s quickly obvious to everyone that their actual knowledge is restricted to Chi-Com government approved ‘Histories’.
Make no mistake - these guys are just as hardcore as they’ve ever been; they’ve just got much better PR people than the Soviets had.
let me begin by saying that I luv this website, and it partially inspired me to get onto the whole blogoshpere myself. I applaud the way you call out all the hypocrisy and redicularity that goes on in the ‘entertainment’ world. i consider politics entertainment because just like hollywood and such, we watch them talk and say things, know they’re lying or acting, and just take it for what it is.
now on to the comment. I do agree that the Chinese govt has some issues when it comes to it’s image. I watched some of the history channel, or was it discovery, pre Olympics China Day event where they showed some of the prep work for the Olympics, and was a little weirded out by the smiling camp thing. but I feel this post is a little unnecessary. when it comes to the fireworks, the smog in bejing, china has been a well publicized thing for months and maybe years heading into the Olympics. they are trying to work on it. the broadcast is just that, a broadcast for the entertainment of the people watching. i care not when the fireworks were fired, either way i am not standing outside looking at real fireworks. then the lil girl, she creeped me out, but in the western world we all know that when it comes to tv and what not, a pretty face goes further than talent in many cases than should be allowed, so why nitpick in this situation. I wonder if it would have been considered better if they had the girl undergo some surgery or what not to fix the teeth, also the whole winning and not actually winning is not at all a chinese olympic invention. and then lastly the history thing…What major country has not committed atrocities. should we dredge them up every time the country is on a public stage? should we discuss how slavery may have played a part to having many of the athletes that are present on many European and American teams there to begin with? should we discuss how the pure fact that some countries have more money gives them more access to certain sports that cost money to partake in? should we discuss how that same money has lured some athletes away from less fortunate countries? What Government truly operates with in full disclosure.
on top of that all we either have to agree that people have the freedom to be themselves or that they have to be held to the same rules as one person. I think it is easy to see that china is a very different place than countries in the western world, hell we call it the eastern world. their history si far different and they have chosen to make changes in their own way. Is it slow yeah, sure, who really knows, but It seems they are making strides in the right direction. I feel that this post may be nitpicking, It is the Olympics people, it is supposed to be about the sports. It is also tv, where realty shows are very far from reality, where news is hardly ever jsut the news and not ‘opinions’ I feel it needs a third analogy but i tire of writing this comment and will probably save this for my blog.
mi dispiace, excuse the rAnt,
I will continue to be a faithful reader of this amazing Blog
Man Scott F is psychic! That’s freaky
Silanga is following you now Scott. Quick! Look out your window!!
I continue commenting this heavenly blog. No deceit! Or you shall be banished to the Land of Wind, and Ghosts!
The fact that everyone has committed atrocities is something we all know… just the fact that we know them is a hell of a lot better than the Chinese citizens’ situation. They are meticulously shielded from the truth of what their government has done. Do you think that we could be having this conversation over there about them and not us(which we can do as much as we want for as long as we want)? On their interwebs? If so, No. Just No.
Also, no country operates with full disclosure…. but which operate with absolutely no disclosure? I know 2, and they start with C’s, just like their governments.
I’m not psychic, and I really promise that I’m not as tinfoil hat as the tone of that post came out like. I guess deep down I really HOPE that those people are paid government stooges - because the alternative is that they actually BELIEVE the crap they’re spewing. I’ve heard from friends that have visited China that most of the citizens seem to believe in the party and the cause, but like me, they’re not sure if the people they talk to are true believers, or just saying it so the cops don’t show up in the middle of the night to drag them off.
Lets face it - if disagreeing with the government publicly in America meant getting thrown in jail or rolled over by a tank, approval ratings would be pretty high here too.
Oh, and Silanga, you’re kidding right?
“What major country has not committed atrocities. should we dredge them up every time the country is on a public stage? should we discuss how slavery may have played a part to having many of the athletes that are present on many European and American teams there to begin with?”
Yeah, but slavery was 200 years ago - the Chinese are occupying Tibet right now. They’re supporting genocide in Dafur, right now. They’re rounding up dissidents and political rivals, right now. They’re oppressing their own citizens, right now. They’re interfering with the international press, despite swearing that they would have complete, unrestricted access to get the games in the first place.
Yeah, the Olympics is about spots, but it’s also about peace and international unity - two concepts completely alien to the Chinese government. This whole Olympics was supposed to be their chance to be accepted as a legitimate player on the international stage, but they are refusing to play by the rules.
Heya Silanga-
that’s the thing with hypocrisy- it doesn’t matter if you’re doing a little better than you used to, or if other countries are evil too. Everybody still gets called on everything. Or they should, which is why I hope this blog never dies.
China needs calling out on this because for the Olympics they are presenting themselves to the world…but what they’re showing just ain’t true. Pure deceit.
As for the girl who was dubbed: yes, in America we would have picked a pretty face too. Here’s the thing though…they weren’t looking for an opera quality voice, they wanted a little girl who could sing. Why couldn’t they pick a photogenic little girl with a decent voice to START with? They certainly have enough to choose from (re: the contest). It’s the fact that they DID pick one based on talent, and then at the last minute decided to use a cutie instead that makes it pretty nasty. They didn’t just pick a pretty face, they stole a little girl’s voice and gave it somebody else.
I love the Olympics more than any person should. I don’t particularly care about the faked footprints or the selective history - I’m sure Germany doesn’t exactly love discussing ‘39 - ‘45 - but the little girl debacle really makes me sad. She’ll grow up always knowing her country deemed her too ugly for TV. And really, she’s not even TV ugly. I think she’s cute, maybe not as obviously cute as the other girl, but hearing her sing live would have made her even cuter. How depressing!
And by the way, can we talk about the hypocrisy of Coke sponsoring the Olympics? Don’t we all know what the Chinese do to our Cokes!?
Scott that’s what I was talking about. I wasn’t being sarcastic. You posted and then Silanga showed up out of nowhere.
“people to troll around the net and defend their . You can be on a site for years, and never see a single person posting from China - but as soon as a story or blog comes out critical of their government, and suddenly you’ve got 20 of them jumping in to call everyone ‘bigots’ for criticizing the regime.”
If you didn’t have a tin foil hat on before, I’d put one on now. I don’t know if they’re from China, but it sure looks like it.
Scott F, we also have American moonbat socialist morons on our college campuses who will defend China as well. In Madison WI last month there was a PRO-China rally. As these people have long given up their last trendy cause of “free tibet” or whatever they rally around these days instead of getting a job.
I ahve to quote Dr Ian Malcom of Jurassic Park 2 to decribe the 2008 Beijng Games. “That’s how it starts, Ooh and Ahhs, next there is yelling and screaming.”
The smog that China said wouldn’t be over Beijing is there; the government either rounded up or built walls in front of the people they don’t want the tourists to see (Potemkin Olympics, anyone?); reporters weren’t given internet access that they were promised. In light of these and other things, it hardly seems surprising that the special-effects opening ceremonies (which I admit I watched part of and which I enjoyed) were not as advertised either.
As well, I had been thinking similarly to Ruby: “the little girl debacle really makes me sad. She’ll grow up always knowing her country deemed her too ugly for TV. And really, she’s not even TV ugly. I think she’s cute, maybe not as obviously cute as the other girl, but hearing her sing live would have made her even cuter. How depressing!” I concur. Depressing but not surprising.
Ooh, it’s an early Nineties singing scandal revisited! The bucktooth Chinese girl is Martha Wash and Lin Miaoke is C C Music Factory.
I think China was trying to improve its image by hosting the Olympics, but all the “fake” stuff, censoring despite previous promises, air-brushing of history, and hiding people that the government does not want tourists to see has made me respect the Chinese government less than ever. I think all the Chinese government cares about is putting on a good face, whatever the truth behind it. I don’t think I ever want to visit China, and this is sad, ’cause I am half Chinese.
I just read another report about the Chinese national anthem switch. It appears that the singer wasn’t the actual contest winner. The winner was a 10 year old girl who was deemed too old and too unatractive. So, the next girl was chosen to replace her, only to be replaced on screen by the “better looking” girl. If this is how the regime deals with a 3 minute television segment, imagine how they deal with someone questioning their leaders.
Wow, absolutely no mention of “esteemed” (that was sarcasm) Chairman Mao, and the ol’ Commie switcheroo…what I find interesting is that people are actually outraged about this. I guess I’m just cynical. I expected the China to do this.
BTW Totally dig the site.
If anyone is surprised by what China is doing or has done…then they haven’t had a history lesson on Communism. This is textbook stuff…sweep away the bad past, control the presses, make the government look awesome, get rid of those who disagree. I would have been more in shock if the opposite happened.
Is it me, or does the actual footage of the footprints look far more impressive than the digitised counterfeit?
And seriously, the girl who actually sang the song is cute, too! Why not let her have the fifteen minutes she deserved?
Oy gevallt…
I think the entire Chinese gymnast scandal is ridiculous. No doubt those girls earned their gold medals last night, but is anybody completely convinced that all of those girls are 16?
Despite all the irritating controversies surrounding this Olympics, all the drama does make the competition a lot more interesting.
oh lordy, i hope they don’t block you.
Deceiver - you forgot one more thing. Remember during the opening ceremonies when the commentators made all those condescending statements about how it was an honor for those little nations “just to be there” because they have no chance to medal? Well, some of those countries have won their first medal. Boo NBC.
And the “LIVE” bug is on the screen nationwide, even though it’s only live on the East Coast.
I have to agree, the live version was very impressive and looked more realistic than the computer animation they scammed the world with.
I do think a good point was made about the state of the chinese nation by several commentators yesterday, after seeing the thousands of chinese citizens that were employed to put on the event, imagine those same people with AK-47s in their hands and you would understand what China can do if they wanted to.
Scott F.
Look who is talking. Who occupied Hawaii, Indiana….? What happened and is happening in Iraq,Iran…? The Olympics is just about sports, but who is using it as a weapon to oppose China two months ago? Think it through first before open your mouth.
”Yeah, but slavery was 200 years ago - the Chinese are occupying Tibet right now. They’re supporting genocide in Dafur, right now.
Yeah, the Olympics is about spots, but it’s also about peace and international unity - two concepts completely alien to the Chinese government. This whole Olympics was supposed to be their chance to be accepted as a legitimate player on the international stage, but they are refusing to play by the rules.”
is Indiana supposed to be India? Because that was TOTALLY England’s fault. *backflip*
either way, i thought the main problem was that the cutest little girl in the world with a beautiful voice was replaced with a plastic looking tv commercial actress.
maybe they switched because they remembered the NBC commentary during Bjork’s performance where they just went on and on about her oscar swan dress.
You refer to the flaming arrow shot at the Barcelona games in ‘92 as missing the cauldron yet still managed to ignite the Olympic flame.
It is not “sort of like” anything being discussed here.
The archer was tasked to send the lit arrow from a point below the cauldron and send it through a huge plume of vaporized fuel above the cauldron in order to both ensure it ignites with only one try and to have dramatic effect of a larger orange ball of flame putting a final crescendo on the flame lighting process. He was not to doink it into the side of the cauldron or shoot it up and have it swoosh into the thing like a basketball jump shot. I only point this out because that was real and worked unlike what you are describing here. I hate to see something cool be short changed by lumping it in with what the Chinese did.
Again - we occupied Hawaii a LONG time ago. And Indiana decided to become a State of their own free will :~) Like Cindy said, if that was supposed to be India, you’re blaming the wrong white people (I know we all look alike, so I’ll let it slide). And we’re not in Iran… yet.
I love it when people try to compare us being in Iraq to the Chinese in Tibet. Few differences:
1. In ‘91 Saddam had the third (or fourth, I’m having trouble remembering) largest military in the world. Tibet has never broken the top 100 nations.
2. Saddam attacked and occupied a sovereign nation (Kuwait). What exactly did Tibet invade and occupy?
3. Iraq was recognized as a dangerous rogue regime in more than 14 different UN resolutions. How many of those are you going to find against Tibet?
4. Though under the authority of a foreign occupier, the average Iraqi actually has more freedom now than he did before we invaded. I personally helped conduct security a couple times for ANTI-American demonstrations. Imagine that, U.S. Marines protecting the freedom of their enemies to tell them to get out. What exactly happened in Tibet recently when they tried to voice their opposition to China’s occupation? Yeah.
Now, this was 16 years ago, but what I remember was the TV commentators saying that this guy was the single greatest living archer, and that he was going to light the cauldron by shooting the arrow into it. I remember being shocked that he couldn’t do that, given all the practice time they supposedly gave him.
Hell, if I crank my Weber gas grill up high enough and shoot a flaming arrow out of my bedroom window with a blindfold on, the neighborhood will probably go up. But that doesn’t make me William Tell.
My problem with the Olympics is the endless hype. I heard on the news this morning that four billion people watched the opening ceremonies.
Thats a pretty neat trick since the best estimates that I can find are that there are about one billion TVs on the entire planet. You’d need four people in front of each and every one to accomplish that. And no one was at home during the opening ceremonies at my house.
They’re almost over right?
I’ve read somewhere that the four-billion number referred to the number of households in which the olympics were available for viewing on cable, satellite, etc.
Can anyone find the reference?
Jeebus H. Christamighty, when in history has there EVER been an Olympic Games WITHOUT controversy of some sort? Just sayin.
Everything I checked says just about the same thing. And I checked every website available on the internet. All 200,000,000 of them.
Top THAT Olympics.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2525453/Light-fantastic-Chinas-opening-ceremony-thrills-the-watching-world—Olympics.html
http://www.dailyitem.com/0200_sports/local_story_221133839.html
I was gonna link all 61,000,000 examples but, well you know… I’m lying for reasons I can’t figure out. Maybe to stay relevant?
Free Indiana!
Man, I live in Illinois and I had no idea that the state 1 hour away was being occupied recently. I should go visit Indy and help those folks. I mean Tibetan monks all know kung-fu and can defend themselves, right? Probably they started it, picking a fight with poor, defenseless, no more evil than anybody else China.
I live in Illinois too. What’s wrong with Indiana? I mean beside the obvious.
Okay so like Tibet before buddhism came was an empire as well, like totally joined with xiongnu and mongolian hordes to help liberate parts of iran and like not to say i don’t love tibet or anything but things as they are now are not as they have always been… for instance china has not always been in tibet. <.<
let’s see if that earns me a visit from the thought police.
oh, and the point of my comment was that I am sure at some point in history Tibet’s military broke into the top 100 contemporary military powers.
Tibetan armor, yo. Look it up.
How did hating on the Chinese turn into hating on my state? Leave Indiana out of this! We might be boring as hell, but we’re really really polite to make up for it. We’re kinda like the Canada of the Midwest.
I was thinking more like the Manitoba of the midwest. You needed a little more “boring” moxed in with your tedium.
i’ve been reading this blog since around january, but am a first time commenter.
first i have to say I LOVE IT! it’s the first thing i read when i go online. even though i don’t read too many blogs (just deceiver, thesuperficial and iwatchstuff), this one is, by far, my favorite. thank you for the laughs and the fine reporting!
i have to say i wouldn’t be too surprised either, if michael phelps couldn’t swim. lol. i’m kidding of course. i was watching the synchronized diving competition yesterday morning and i felt some of the judges weren’t paying too much attention. to say the least. i don’t remember the pair in question, but they had a nice execution, few mistakes, and they got a 6.5 from the judges! fortunately it was the only one, so it was dismissed, but i smell something fishy in this year’s games. the chinese pair was getting pretty high marks, even though their execution (and the difficulty was almost minimum) was average. but that’s my opinion. i’m not an expert. regarding marta karolyi’s suspicions, i share them! i’m not american, and the only gymnastics we’re competing in is the trampoline (i’m portuguese, waiting for my athletes from athletics :p), but i love to watch gymnastics and the first thing i said when i saw he kexin was - “there is no way in hell this girl is 16!” now i read that an official record from this year stated her age as 14? hmm.. i don’t mind though! as my dad says: “let them have steroids, we want to see a show!” lol
keep up the great work
Awww, Scott F., I don’t hate Indiana! Hell, again, I’m from ILLINOIS. Yeah, we got boring down too. Anything south of Chicago is a non-mentionable. I just didn’t realize that you guys were oppressed recently. Why didn’t ya call for help, neighbor?
I love Jon Stewart’s observation on the fact that the decision to switch little girl singers went all the way up to the Politburo:
“How tough is it for a 7-year old girl when her own country’s government tells her “You’re not cute?”‘
“Mongolian hordes to help liberate parts of Iran”. They make a Hell of a chicken too.
The Mongols are on my side. Up yours peta!
I am not from China nor have ever been there, I was just pointing out that i thought people were coming down hard on the place. I do not think you have to be from somewhere in order to have an opinion on it. Otherwise pretty much all our comments on the subject would be null and void. I feel one of the issues is just that, that when I say something in defense to China some people feel I much be Chinese, which shows the polarizing affects of nationality. I have traveled the world quit a bit while growing up and have yet to find a place that was as bad as advertised. Americans are not as stupid and ignorant as the world says, you do not see lions and elephants on your way to school in Africa, not all Italians eat pasta and talk using their hands (I am sure the ones without hands do not) From my experience looking at a place form the outside you will usually have more negative information than positive. Whether the positive sticks out more or if nit is just makes sense that your country would want you to think it is worse in other countries lest you decide to change your allegiance.
I am not saying there are not great issues that should be dealt with in China, I am just saying that this may not be the right venue for it nor are switching a pretty face or cgi fireworks truly issues to be discussed. Does it not seem that peopel will discuss these things now off of something as inconsequential as this then after the Olympics it will eb no more. They will still not really care that 50% or more of the things they have are made in china. They wont care about leaders all over the world benefiting from this same china that a few months ago they were abhorring for potentially scarring one little girls life. Which i really doubt she will be scarred, We should not forget that she probably did not grow up seeing britney and the other teen pop phenomena of the western world so she did not really have dreams of fame from being seen by billions, i think more Chinese may have heard it on radio than on tv as is.
Ok I would be nice if we could just all discuss everyones problems all the time. If we did away with the kid gloves of courtesy and away with ‘respect’ for other nations and their governments and their decisions. Tibet is being occupied at the time being but to most Chinese they may not feel it is an occupation, they may look at it as a decision that the govt they trust and love, for better or for worse, has made. I would be saying the same thing if i was watching the suberbowl and some European announcer decided to go off on how wrong the Iraq situation is, while his country is still buddy buddy with the place.
I remember seeing a comment on some blog this week that was referring the birds nest stadium that went something like “how can that justify spending 200 million on a stadium?” Welll USA just built a 434 million dollar embassy in Beijing. Yes Tibet is still occupied. so I can tell you some people that apparently do not give two ishts about that situation. most of the us government
The olympics bore me. The only reason I still pay attention to them is because I’m required to watch for my swim team.
@ Everyone talking about IL: The whole Midwest has boring in it. I would know, I live in MN.