The Olympic Games get under way

Beijing looks so much better at night. The smog that has been enveloping the city by day is far less visible after the heavens darken. Street lights penetrate the gloom and the rainbow colours of innumerable neon advertising signs along the skyline are reflected in the glass-dominated structures of newly-built skyscrapers. The National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, glows red after dusk. And the Water Cube aquatics venue, across the Olympic Green, turns a brilliant blue.

But there has probably never been a light show like the one that illuminated Beijing to mark the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games. Fireworks from the Great Wall outside the city through Tiananmen Square to the National Stadium, the main Olympic venue, located in the north of the Chinese capital, were so vast in number as to have constituted an environmental hazard in probably any other country. The smoke from the fireworks would be enough to ensure a covering of smog over Beijing on the day after the ceremony.

The fact that such an integral part of the occasion was better seen from outside the stadium by strolling citizens - unable to obtain, let alone afford, tickets - than by the privileged dignitaries inside it, was the only evidence so far at these Olympics of the political origins of China’s government. And it was entirely in keeping too with the idiosyncratic appearance of the Olympic stadium, which has been built with the breathtaking Bird’s Nest structure around it, but on the inside is disappointingly plain.

Perhaps looking wonderful on the surface, but unimaginatively functional within, is typical of the nature of modern Beijing. Those in power here do not seem to have much awareness of the many contradictions and idiosyncrasies of local life. So it was not surprising that these traits were so evident in the opening ceremony. The spectacle was wonderful early on - but it was celebrating a part of China's history which has now long been lost; its art destroyed and its music abandoned.

There was a glaring hole in the programme for which the Cultural Revolution was responsible. What followed in its stead is shapeless and incoherent, described by one observer of Chinese affairs, present at the ceremony, as ersatz kitsch. It almost seemed as if China has no clear socio-cultural identity now. As ever in modern Beijing, many of the Chinese in the audience wore western designer labels, while some sported t-shirts with nationalist slogans – in English.

The former gymnastics gold medallist, Li Ning, who lit the Olympic flame in Beijing, after stunningly flying up to run on air around the stadium roof, was an interesting choice in the circumstances. His eponymous sports clothing brand is China’s biggest, but not an official Games sponsor. The German firm which is, adidas, will not be best pleased by his free publicity, when the Olympic authorities are supposed to be working hard to prevent any ambush marketing of their corporate backers.

204 nations marched in the parade of athcletes, following the division of the Koreas into two and the late reinstatement of Iraq, which got one of the largest cheers of the night from the 91,000 crowd inside the Bird’s Nest. The USA flag bearer, the Sudanese refugee Lopez Lomong (who in 2000 walked 10 miles from a Kenyan refugee camp to watch the Sydney Olympics on a black and white television), was surprisingly well received, given that it was a clearly political choice because of China’s involvement in Darfur. There were some reports that George W. Bush was greeted with mild groans by a few spectators. However, Steven Spielberg, who withdrew from working on the ceremony in protest at the same issue, could not be said to have been missed artistically.

Those performers and artists who did participate in the $100 million ceremony numbered approximately 14,000 in total, with 2,008 drummers welcoming the spectators, and images of 2,008 children projected onto screens around the stadium. The traditional Olympic release of doves as a symbol of peace, which first took place in 1920 at the Antwerp Games, was also just a projection this time. So, ironically, the Games being staged in the Bird’s Nest did not actually involve any live birds.

No nation apart from China could have carried out such a lavish project. It is not so much the funds required, just that there is nowhere else which would have the motivation to stage anything of similar stature. “Host a great Olympics, Build a new Beijing” is one of the 2008 Games slogans around the city. The government is successfully presenting a modern China to the world through Beijing 2008. But how much depth is there to this change?

The official programme for the opening ceremony of course quotes a saying by Confucius: “Isn’t it a real joy to have friends from afar?” China might be gaining some appreciation for its efforts - a fair amount of it grudging - but it will take much more than staging a sporting festival, however fine, to show real progress. Meaning that true friends will, for the most part, still take a while longer to develop.