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Imagine the terror of the Chinese officials

David Tang

Wednesday, 16th July 2008

David Tang reflects on his visits to Beijing in the run-up to the Games, where Western expertise has been harnessed to the ruthless efficiency of China’s government machine

Albert Speer was commissioned by the Chinese government to lay out a masterplan for the access to the Olympic Green in Beijing. His design consisted of one impressive avenue connecting the Forbidden City and the National Stadium in which the opening ceremony will take place. Speer is indeed the son of the infamous Albert, chief architect to Hitler and his minister of armaments. Speer Senior had also laid out his signature axis within Hitler’s megalomaniac city ‘Welthaupstadt Germania’ which, thankfully, was never realised. So what the father failed to do in Berlin, his son managed to achieve in Beijing, about 60 years later.

It has also taken about 60 years for a commercial flight to fly directly from the mainland to Taiwan. The historic landing on 4 July signalled a seminal thaw between the two Chinas. Such friendly news could only be a bonus for the political stature of mainland China. It, together with the show of some highly efficient relief work on the Sichuan earthquake, was a timely dilution of the uglier internal conflict with Tibet, an irritating thorn in China’s anxious promotions of the Olympics. Indeed, the success of these Games has become an obsession for China from the moment she secured them seven years ago.

Not only was the German Albert Speer recruited, the Australians were brought in to design the aquatic stadium and the British to build it. The Swiss were appointed to design the main stadium in collaboration with a leading avant-garde Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, responsible for the ‘bird’s nest’ effect of the outer crust of the stadium (even though Ai Weiwei is a vocal critic of the Chinese government). The new airport, with 118 per cent of the capacity of Heathrow terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 combined, and built within budget and ahead of time, was the work of Norman Foster, OM. The headquarters of China’s Central Television is a dramatic brace of leaning towers that make Pisa look vertical, and was designed by the Dutch and German duo Koolhaas and Sheereen. The National Theatre, a science-fiction-looking dome adjacent to Tiananmen Square, is the work of the Frenchman Paul Andreu.

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Shim Jae Hoon

July 30th, 2008 12:36am

To Mr Tang,

It's a good article, though a bit too heavy on the side of cynicism and criticisms, but as a Korean who experienced a similar national upheaval (how else can I describe the huge, protracted national exertions in money and attention for the Games?) in 1988, I can fairly sympathise with Chinese leaders' anxiety to present the best possible face. For all that, I think Beijing can make use of this occasion to highlight a number of issues that afflict its gigantic economic development efforts -- such as environment protection, improved sanitary concerns, a more equitable distribution of concern to "softer" side of development -- the importance of developing high culture, a more acute feeling for building up the social, economic and political institutions, not necessarily to the level of Europe and the US, but at least to match the level of its neighbours. One may dismiss this as trivial, but Japan and South Korea managed to do away with their traditional toilet system after their Olympics. China can at least do the same. As for the political challenge, well, Korea's military leaders never quite recovered from its impact. They ardently sought the Olympic games to enhance their prestige, but to their astonishment found it shaking their foundation. China will not be an exception to this rule. - Shim Jae Hoon.

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