Olympics: a writer’s view

I’m struck by the fact that, not only was the Olympic torch procession invented by the Nazis, but apparently ‘a key Olympic route has been designed by the son of Albert Speer, Hitler’s favourite architect.’

On top of the China regime’s human rights abuses at home and Tibet and its support for the genocide in Darfur, you do wonder if the British politicians, athletes and businessmen involved in Beijing 2008 have any sense of shame, morality or self-awareness.

The Guardian has an interesting piece by Ma Jian, a Chinese novelist whose books have been burned in the street.

One day Ma Jian, who grew up in Qingdao, on the Yellow Sea, was returning from the beach when he passed a rubbish collector pushing a cart piled high with books. They had fallen foul of the cultural revolution, and were on their way to a pyre. He asked if he could have one. No, came the answer. Could he just have an illustration then? Permission was reluctantly granted and a page ripped out. And another? Yes – but then the book was snatched away. He kept those pages for years.

The printed word has been Ma’s talisman ever since, and he has hung on through thick and thin: being hounded from his state job; his first wife leaving him; having his work banned (he wrote, in Stick Out Your Tongue, of the desecration of Tibet, both from within and without – it too was burned in the streets); going into exile, first to Hong Kong and then – despite the fact that he speaks no English – London; beginning a new life with Flora Drew, his translator and mother of their children, Jack and Isabella.

The 54-year-old has never been able to leave his homeland completely behind, and when we met he was preparing to return to Beijing, something he does a couple of times a year, this time to soak up the atmosphere. ‘The government has called on its people, asking for self-sacrifice, for people willing to devote themselves to the nation, and it has picked out its own heroes – it’s just like the great mass movements of the past.’ We may read stories of lessons in English and etiquette, but Ma has heard of more sinister controls at work. ‘Street hairdressers have been given red armbands, and are able to report any misdemeanours or bad behaviour to the government – anyone who stands out from the crowd, anyone who might arouse suspicion, people who have come in from the countryside to petition the authorities about local injustices, people who are shabbily dressed – these people with red armbands have the authority to make citizen’s arrests or to hand them over to the police.’

Students on holiday have been told to stay in their home towns, he says; Beijing citizens have been informed it’s best to leave the streets clear for foreigners; artists have been prevented from returning to China or had exhibitions banned: ‘There are fascistic elements to it, this idea of the mass cleansing, the purging of the city, of the disabled and mentally unstable, of all subversives and outsiders.’

Update: See this excellent piece by A Mocked and Paid Litany. It says everything that needs to be said.

Right now, it’s easy to find a general sentiment along these lines:

Let’s leave the politics outside the door since that’s not what the Olympic is all about shall we? Even if the Chinese citizens don’t like their government, they would still want their Olympics to be the best. For the next couple of weeks at least, they would only care about their country being the best in the sporting events. Didn’t you feel that way back in Sydney Olympics?

I shan’t pay the author the dignity of linking to him, but it’s not hard to stumble upon rubbish like this. I’d very much like to see pimply middle-class fellows from Sydney telling those who were actually involved in the construction of infrastructure for the Olympics that all they should care about for a couple of weeks is nationalistic fervour in sporting events. Just seeing as many of said workers are actually Chinese ‘citizens’ who’ve been abducted from their families and homes in Western Provinces and made to work in Beijing as “indentured” labourers, under lock and key and the constant supervision of armed guards (in case anyone’s dim, we’re talking about slavery).

Still, the game’s the thing, eh? Pip-pip!