Games Trades Its Seoul For A New Kind Of Feeling: Goodwill

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday August 11, 2008

ROY MASTERS

Unlike the 1988 hosts, the Chinese showed at the opening ceremony they are not bound by old enmities.

TWENTY years ago, I sat in a students' hotel in Seoul and watched the opening ceremony of the Games on TV, observing the reactions of South Korea's youth as each national team entered the Olympic Stadium.

Student riots had marred the build-up to the 1988 Olympics, and, although not as many countries boycotted the Games compared to Moscow and Los Angeles, some nations did stay away - including Cuba, robbing the world of witnessing their great boxing team.

The announcement of the Chinese team was met with snarls and hisses in the Seoul hotel, but when it came to the gold medal for booing, the sonic wave of disapproval for Japan, Korea's cruel occupier in World War II, almost curdled the beer. Japan is unpopular in China for the same reason.

An Australian businessman working in China was shocked when he found the Beijing Organising Committee office shut down on September 18. It was anti-Japan day in China and the staff had travelled to a memorial in west Beijing that featured evidence of Japanese butchery during the occupation, including scenes of beheading.

However, on Friday night in Beijing, old enmities were forgotten. There was goodwill in the city and at the stadium. Russia, an ideological enemy of China's for much of the Cold War, was cheered.

The reaction to Japan was neutral but a huge roar greeted the entry of "Chinese Taipei" (Taiwan), the island nation cut off from the mainland for almost 60 years. Private donors from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau were the main contributors to the development of the Water Cube, estimated to cost at least $US150 million ($168m).

If the Chinese had installed a cheer-ometer in their thatched-steel stadium, it would have measured a muted welcome for (South) Korea and a very positive reception for North Korea, now called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The official order of entry into the stadium had the two Koreas following each other, but something must have happened in the marshalling area because three small countries appeared in between.

Yet that was the only enmity evident on an evening of international harmony and goodwill. China sent a message of peace to the world that was at odds with the whispered warnings of Western businessmen in April when I last visited China. They predicted the government would shut out foreigners after the Olympics and retreat into selfish isolation.

But the entry of the home team into the Bird's Nest was met with unbridled patriotism rather than jingoism. The wild cheering actually began well before the team - women dressed in gold blazers, men in red, regimentally separated - appeared. Red flags fluttered and people stamped their feet in a scene reminiscent of the Rocky movie featuring Ivan Drago.

Percussionists, all 2008 of them, beat fiercely on wheel-in drums and 2008 taijiquan artists shadow-boxed. Rather than the militarism seen in Seoul, where martial arts dominated the program, the atmosphere in Beijing was all-consuming pride.

Tickets to the ceremony were limited to one per Chinese family, meaning most of the 90,000 present were seated beside someone they didn't know. All their passion was directed at the event, as opposed to the corporate, neutral atmosphere we witness at big sporting events in Australia.

It's also interesting to reflect how Asia sees Australia via the Games. The students in the Seoul hotel 20 years ago greeted the Australian team with a big cheer and on Friday night we also received a generous welcome, equal to Germany's and Italy's.

However, the biggest change since 1988 was the attitude to the US. While spectators at the Seoul stadium were too polite to boo, the American team was hissed relentlessly in the Seoul pub, mainly because American troops were still stationed in the city.

Compare this with the entry of the US team into the Bird's Nest. Once the great Satan to Mao's Red Guards, the US team received a warm welcome.

Bob Hawke, who campaigned strongly for Beijing to host the Games, once told me that goodwill between the US and China was one of the world's top priorities. On the evidence of Friday night, we've come a long way in 20 years.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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