Friday, exactly 2 weeks before the Olympics begin, Chinese flags went up outside of practically every storefront in China. Very cute.
In addition, "Beijing 2008 Welcomes You" junk went up inside the hotel part of my apartment.
It's not that the government is forcing any of these folks to put these up with physical guns pointed at them. I'm sure nobody will actually be arrested if they refuse. But they sure as heck didn't have any flags up before Friday, anywhere. I'm wondering if the Chinese government had to exercize any levers on its people to make them do it--or whether China has been so twisted by guilt to do what they are told for so long that it's just automatic these days.
2 comments:
Is it possibly the other way around, that the gov't was telling people to wait so as to try to keep potentially explosive nationalism in hand? Or maybe I'm misreading the situation with the Olympics and Chinese nationalism.
I will say I have seen very little enthusiasm here in Beijing. I know the overseas Chinese are all up-in-arms, but most of the Beijingers criticize them pretty harshly. Some of them are even complaining about the pains from the Olympics. I am not feeling the enthusiasm.
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