Nothing displays the extreme wealth, hype and excess in China better than the price tag of the Olympics opening ceremony.  On ganji.com, the hottest cyber market for trading Olympics tickets, several sellers have the neck to charge 100,000 RMB for a ticket originally priced at 5,000, the highest of the opening ceremony. This is extreme and might even be a publicity stunt more than anything else, but in general, the tickets resold on the market go for 10 times the original value.  The organisers have regulated against exorbitant profiteering through measures like ID check for ticket buyers and only one resell is allowed at no more than twice the price, but rules are often hardly more than a mere guide line for behaviors.  As China is fast becoming the world’s largest market for luxury products where million-dollar Maybachs sell like hotcakes, the outlandishly rich might just drop 100,000 RMB on the game of a life time.

Organisers of the 2008 Games recently announced a standard, four-part Olympic Cheer. It is a series of hand motions and slogans that’s being promoted as THE way to cheer. See the video clip and illustration for reference. This doesn’t mean spectators’ can’t cheer in their own ways, but the authorities hope to rally a uniform, powerful and 文明/wen2 ming2/’civilised’ audience to showcase China’s image to the world.

This might seem ridiculous. And many of us in China think it is. But China is used to such ‘engineering’. Much like the idea of making peasants into Frenchmen in Post Revolution France, the authorities have always been concerned with the issue of 文明/wen2 ming2/’civilised’ or ‘proper conduct’ in post 1949 China. And there is indeed a lot of 不文明/improper conduct around. Spitting, littering and flamboyantly speaking on the phone in cinema are starters. The Shanghai government even has a七不/qi1 bu4/seven don’ts for its residents. Amongst them are ‘don’t spit’ and ‘don’t litter’.

You can imagine how the organisers feel about those entrenched behaviours during the Olympics. Therefore, a national ‘be a civilised spectator’ campaign/文明观众/wen2 ming2 guan1 zhong4/ was launched. It features basic rules like ’switch off phone during the match’ to specific rules of the sports and how to watch and cheer appropriately. 

How do people respond to the authoritarian ‘do’s and don’ts’? Well, for a people so accustomed to and almost immune to rules and regulations, we take whatever we deem to be useful or make sense and shrug off the rest. This is how a lot of poeple feel about the official cheer: the idea is a bit absurd, but the actual practice is fun and energising. Besides, when you are immersed in the collective hype, why not?

But of course uniform action and thinking conjure up rather negative associations in the rest of the world. A subtlety which we’ve yet to learn to handle. The slogan of the Beijing Games is ‘one world, one dream’/同一个世界，同一个梦想/tong2 yi1 ge4 shi4 jie4, tong2 yi1 ge4 meng4 xiang3, which resonates with the talk of harmony, a theme of this administration. But I guess what would be even more valuable is the recognition and respect for ‘one world, different dreams’, 同一个世界，不同的梦想／tong2 yi1 ge4 shi4 jie4, bu4 tong2 de meng4 xiang3.

Anxious parents stand outside the school to give kids moral support

Besides Chinese New Year, the only occasion that China stops for is 高考/gao1 kao3/university entrance exam. Every year, from the 7th to the 9th of June, the entire nation switches into exam mode with millions of teenagers. This year, a staggering 11 million students are competing for their place at university.

Gaokao is not only crucial for the students. It has a very special place in the collective Chinese psyche.

• A lot of us have personally exprienced or will experience the test of one’s life. Eventhough there are more diverse pathways in life, many still see gaokao as the deal maker or breaker, which touches on a deeper issue–
• –exams have special and deep-rooted significance in China. The standardised exam system dates back 1400 years. Throughout history, it was used to select court officials, and was the most meritocratic and fair system in China. It could catapult someone from humble beginnings to power and fortune. The same can be said for gaokao. That’s why the stakes are so high for most students and parents. The future of your life hangs on the exam. The pressure is so overwhelming that many high school students get gray hair as in the case of my 2 cousins. But it gradually went back to black when gaokao was over.

I’ll write about how the nation stops in tomorrow’s post. Meanwhile, all the very best to the students, especially those in Sichuan.

ChinesePod’s upper intermediate lesson on universities in China

newbie lesson on university majors