Imagine the terror of the Chinese officials
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.
More articles from: David Tang | this section
Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
Advertisement
Labour’s U-turn on social housing for non-immigrants is welcome but too late
Rod LiddleRod Liddle says that metropolitan liberal ideology is too deeply ingrained in local councils, social services and the judiciary to be overturned by one panic measure driven by Labour’s sudden fear of the BNP
To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with
Cass SunsteinCass Sunstein — co-author of the hugely influential Nudge and an adviser to President Obama — unveils his new theory of ‘group polarisation’, and explains why, when like-minded people spend time with each other, their views become not only more confident but more extreme
A splendid lunch with Jimmy McNulty
Deborah RossIn the first of an occasional series of interviews over meals, Deborah Ross talks to Dominic West about The Wire and the challenge to an Old Etonian of playing an American cop
What Jacko needed was someone to say ‘No’
Uri Geller
My defining memory of Michael Jackson — vulnerable, brilliant, otherworldly — is of watching him dance to the soundtrack of a movie.
Michael Jackson Notebook
Emily Maitlis
The news cycle of a dead celebrity is a curious thing.
Immortalised in print
Geoffrey WheatcroftOxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2001-2004, edited by Lawrence Goldman
No more consensus: this time there is a choice
Irwin StelzerThe next election will present voters with two distinct futures, says Irwin Stelzer: Labour’s rising taxes and love of the EU, or the Tories’ spending cuts and plans for the ‘broken society’
There is no sacred right to be a lazy fat slob
Dan JonesIf political reality means we can’t tax the overweight, then at least let’s have tax breaks for those who bother to take exercise, writes unashamed metrosexual Dan Jones
Shared Opinion
Hugo Rifkind
Labour thinks that we are sheep that need to be driven, not goats who need to be led
Growing your own
Ursula BuchanIt is, at present, almost impossible to open a garden magazine, or the gardening pages of a national newspaper, without coming across an article on how we are all now kitchen gardeners and allotmenteers; the theme is that the uncertain economic conditions have turned us back to our gardens, to grow comestibles and thereby ensure that we eat well, now that lack of the readies has reconnected us with our cookers.
Latest blog posts
sponsored links
BIG SAND STEEL BAND
IF YOU ARE PLANNING A CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION and looking for some light entertainment, you can now hire London's busiest steel
BOSC LEBAT, Tarn et Garonne.
BOSC LEBAT, SW France. Only 45 minutes from Toulouse Airport with daily flights from most provincial airports avoiding the horrors
ROME CENTRE
PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Shim Jae Hoon
July 30th, 2008 12:36amTo 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.