Olympic Diary: The politics is personal

Remember way back when people were asking whether we should "politicize" the Olympics? Isn’t it just supposed to be about sports and itty bitty gymnasts doing their best? I have to say, in China, that question is bizarre. The Olympics is politics: that is the point.

Take the case of Owen, a torch-bearer living in the youth camp of the Olympic village. He is not a star athlete, but he’s certainly well-spoken and smart as a whip. When you ask him what it was like to run those 30 meters he ran with the torch, he begins his story this way:

There is a garden next to the youth camp. In 1860, warriors broke into it and killed everybody. And that was the start of a terrible part of Chinese history, but now, within 140 years, I, as a representative of the youth, stand on the same ground and hold the torch showing that China is ready to be one of the strongest countries in the world. It’s completely new and it’s completely meaningful. And all of this is seen by the grass and by the land, by the earth, so I kissed it."

After telling us more about the Olympic compound, which is a heavily fortified, expansive prep school surrounded by green walls with the slogan "the youth are the future" scribbled across them, Owen went on. (By the way, at the Olympic youth camp, the youth are provided with soccer fields, basketball courts, swimming pools, a variety of stores and post offices. It is not dissimilar to Oberlin, Ohio, where I went to college, except you can’t get in and out of the Village without a pass or the Olympic torch.)

We have dreamed about having the Olympic games for about 100 years. And we’ve tried so many times, but we failed so many times. If you give the holding rights to a city, it means you have to say that the city is good. We want to hear that you are respecting our behavior, our hard work. Whenever you hold the Olympic games it is a chance for a country or for a city to improve. And that will eventually benefit each and every Chinese.

Years later, when you look at history, you will see, we have made great progress. After we’ve had so hard time, we’ve survived. All of the Chinese are strong. We can never be defeated! You can kill us with your gun. But we will never be defeated. We survive. That’s what the Olympics can tell the world."

Olympics 2008: It’s not just sports; it’s not just politics. What it’s about is China.

Editor’s note: Zoe Chace is an independent public radio producer who is in China for the Olympics. She’ll be filing periodic dispatches for Passport about what it’s like to be in the middle of the world’s biggest spectacle, the 2008 Olympic Games. Got any questions or thoughts on what she should report on? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Previous posts:

• Olympic Diary, Day 5: Hating the Olympics
• Olympic Diary, Day 2: China’s lonely chairman
• Olympic Diary, Day 1: Where is everyone?