Studio introduction:
On August the 8th the first Olympic Games ever hosted in China had its grand opening. The Beijing Olympics are according to the Chinese leadership own assessment the single most important event in China since the proclamation of the People’s Republic in 1949. In this film shot during the games the games are portrayed as different Chinese people see the games.
Script:
To see the flagrising at Tianaman, you have to be at the square at dawn.
China is hosting its first Olympics,
Many Chinese want to have a snapshot as a personal memory of the big event.
It is the 8th of August. In the home of the Sun family the TV is running warm as China is engulfed in the very last preparations for the Beijing Olympics.
Grandmother Jiang Ze Wen is celebrating her 67th birthday at very same day as the opening ceremony.
She met her husband when they were working for the same work unit in the 1960’s. She fell for him because he was among the most active members of the units sports team.
Life in Beijing today hardly resembles the city the couple grew up in.
Jiang Zi Wen, Old-Beijing, Citizen
- I have lived in Beijing since I was born until now when I have become old. The changes I have witnessed with my own eyes are tremendous. Buildings and roads are completely different. They have become so large. The environment has improved. The pollutions was much worse before.
Beijing’s cityscape has been transformed, and the streets decorated. Since China was awarded the games in 2001 they have counted the days, hours and seconds for the games to begin.
Already in 1908 a Chinese newspaper wrote; imagine if we one day can host the Olympic Games. Only hours remain before the dream of a century will become reality.
- China is great. China is a big country. As a Chinese I feel very proud!
The Sun family has decided to make the opening day for the Olympics a day they will remember, and are celebrating with a meal at a good restaurant.
- The 8th day of the 8th month. It is my birthday according to both the the Western and Chinese calendars. I am very happy! Very happy!
Three generations toast to a middleclass life which just a few decades ago would seem unreal. In the 1960s and 70 families in Beijing ate small portions of meat perhaps only once a week. 12 year ol Sun Hai Ming, the only son and grandson eats as he likes every day. The Olympics the family agrees will show how far China has come. Beijing, they say, has developed 10 years a year since the city was awarded the games.
Sun Hai Ming, Zhou Ning
- Beijing has been renewed. To me it mostly means that Beijing has become large and beautiful. It is especially important that foreigner can see how great Beijing has become.
- First and foremost the new metro. During the Olympics cars with odd and even number plates can be on the streets every second day. I do not feel that this is difficult. When I use public transport to work I think it is very good. The carriages are nice. Beijing has become green.
Beijing has spent 16 billion dollars on new transport systems and other measures to improve the cities environment. The Olympic venues are constructed according to the Chinese principles of Fang Shui, wind and water. The Olympic Park runs along north south axis to establish eternal stability.
- How much ? One thousand five hundred?
Outside the city the authorities are using quite different measures to assure stability.
Already weeks before the games begun the government had placed a three layer circle of security, made up of a 100 check posts in and outside Beijing. They are especially looking for explosives that can be used for terror activities.
- We are looking mostly for suspicious liquids.
The extraordinary security measures and the many thousand extra police and soldiers moved to Beijing, are not only stopping possible terrorists. They also make the lives of ordinary people outside the capital more difficult.
The peach farmer Cao Zhangfe has had to half the price of his harvest. The reason is that the new environmental regulations prohibit him from using his van to transport his fruit to Beijing.
When we have spent less than six minutes at the farm township authorities turn up.
Cao Zhangfe does not wish to tell is his story any longer. The men does not identify themselves, bus as we leave they pursue us in their car, all the way to a check point at the city boarder.
Back in another small town outside Beijing villagers confirm the problems that farmers are facing because of the Olympics.
Liu Chungfeng and her family normally makes 60 000 yuan a year from farming. This year they will make around 10 000. They cannot transport their goods to Beijing.
Liu Chungfeng
- No, I am not permitted. Why ? I don’t have the permit. Ours lorry’s emissions are to high. Agricultural vehicles are not permitted inside Beijing.
Normally it would take one day to sell this load of watermelons, now it takes at least three days and at half the price.
- No I don’t think my work is in vain. The Olympic Games, you know that nothing is bigger than the affairs of the state. Individuals are small the state is big, right? I think the state is big, it does not mean anything that an individual looses a little.
The motor expressway back to Beijing is empty, a rare sight in a country in rapid economic growth.
In Beijing the newspapers are not reporting on the conditions outside the city. The evening papers being fixed to the board are following the official line of Olympic success.
Shanghai,
There are venues for debate outside the machinery of state censorship. In the new art districts in Chinas larger cities the government has allowed more space for creativity and for the criticism of past and present that follows.
In Shanghai we meet Isaac Mao, co founder of the network Social Brain Foundation, and one Chinas most prominent bloggers. In the official media it is impossible to criticize the Olympics, says Chinas new Mao.
Isaac Mao
Soundbite: English:
In the sphere of China’s 20 million or more dedicated bloggers the situation is quite different.
Soundbite: English:
In Pingfang village in the outskirts of Beijing many people are idle during the Olympic Weeks.
Zhuang Jianlong
- We are waiting for the Olympics to finish so that we can start work again. Up to the Olympics we built the birds nest, the water cube, and the International Olympic Press Centre.
Most people in this urban village are migrant workers. Now they have no work. All construction work as been stopped until the end of September.
- I understand that we cannot work during the Olympics. Our work makes too much noise. We are not employed by the state. Contract workers are not compensated for wage loss.
It is the evening of the 8th of August. Chinas moment of international prestige is just minutes away. The Sun family taken the grandparents home, the two youngest generations will watch the opening in a public park.
- Very proud. I feel that China’s dream of a century has been accomplished.
- Very proud. As a Chinese I feel very proud.
For China the games have lot to do with medal contest, to be the most winning nation in their first Olympics at home.
The first to win a gold for China in these games were a 48 kilo heavy girl from South China.
Guangzhou, South China
In these sugarcane fields in South China Chen Xie Xias talent was observed the first time.
Chen Xi Quan
-When she was very little she was already very strong. When she was eight she pulled 150 kilo of Sugarcane.
- At that time we had a small carriage where we put the sugarcane, and she pulled it like a horse.
The same year that the eight year old girl pulled the heavy load of sugarcane she was discovered by talent scouts and chosen to attend sport school.
The gold medalist’s sister in law and her little niece are looking after the flowers and greetings that are being sent to their home.
The recognition given the family did not come without sacrifice, or by accident.
From her very first day at sports school the eight year old girl was specialized to become a weightlifter.
- At that time we did not know what weightlifting was. We only knew that she was selected and we were very happy, but we had no idea that she was going to be a weightlifter.
Their daughters gold have made the parents the most sought after people in the village, everybody is stopping by for a chat. But the girl they are talking about. Lien Jin Huis daughter has almost not been in the village since she was small. At the beginning she was home every second weekend, from the age of 12 it was months between each visit.
- We did not understand what it involved, but the coach chose her and we sent her. I did not feel it so much but the mother did not want her to leave.
Liang Jin Hui
- In the beginning I did not want her to leave but after a while it was easier.
After Chen Xie Xias had won Chinas first gold in their first Olympics at home, she called her parents. In the only conversations they have had since her victory they spoke four to five minutes.
- She asked: daddy do you think I have done well? I said I have a very clever daughter. We spoke for five minutes. She asked if the family was happy. I said that at home everybody is very happy. We are celebrating with fireworks and lion dance.
The only pictures they can see of their child are those in the newspaper. Chinese television came and asked for all their family photos, for program about the gold winner.
The golden girl herself, is not likely to return home soon, and it has been while since they saw her the last time.
- Not since April 2006 when she became Chinese national champion, then she came home for a visit.
As we wait in the village the postman arrives, with a letter. Is turns out to be a congratulation letter from the People’s Liberations Army’s sports college, Chen XieXia, school.
- Letter of congratulation from the sports academy.
With a wish that all student in her class will learn from XieXias success and that she can be an example for the sports college, that everybody will learn from her example and effort, and withstand all difficulties. We shall honour our country’s and ours school’s flag.
-This gold medal she won because of own hard work and that the country gave her the opportunity. We in the family are extremely proud.
- I felt that Olympics is a big celebration that it took China a 100 years to achieve. I am proud and and happy. I was hoping that my daughter could take part in the competition and I am very happy and proud that she could honour the sports school, our homeprovince and our country be winning the medal.