People’s Olympics? (Beijing 2008)

Granted, the question mark was not included in this main slogan of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Beijing Olympics generated heated debates worldwide on China’s authoritarian governance, environmental pollution, human rights situation, alleged indulgence of humanitarian disaster in Darfur in southern Sudan, and its policies toward Tibet. Indeed, many observers believed that not all people shared the same dream. The charge of China’s indulgence of humanitarian disaster in Darfur made Steven Spielberg withdraw in January 2008 from his cooperation with Zhang Yimou to design the spectacle of the Opening Ceremony — a step that did not cause much debate within China itself. The months preceding the Olympics were thus ridden with events unplanned by the authorities, events that disrupted the intended promotion of the Olympics.