I haven’t watched any of the Summer Olympics from China. None. Zero. Not on TV or the Internet. I’ll read a few stories here and there but that’s about it.

There are still incredible personal stories in the Olympics but for me the entire China political crap gets in the way of paying attention to the individual athletes.

The Chinese Olympics are all about China and not about the athletes. China wants their image to be spotless so bad they go to any length to appear that in China’s everything’s perfect and everyone is happy.

From the LA Times

China abuzz over lip-syncing singer in Olympics opening ceremony

Peiyi had the voice and was supposed to perform, but was yanked at the last minute because her looks were deemed not suitable by a senior Communist Party official, Chen said.
“It was for the national interest,” Chen told Beijing Radio. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings and expression.”

The other sleight of hand involved the massive fireworks display at the culmination of the ceremony showing 29 pyrotechnic “footprints” a second apart in recognition of the 29 Summer Games, as if the past Olympics were walking toward the stadium.

All of the footprints were at least partially detonated that night. Those on the scene saw them. But what TV viewers saw was an animated three-dimensional studio re-creation, Gao Xiaolong, visual-effects team leader at the Crystal Stone animation company, told the Beijing Times.

The footprints had to be done in a studio because they wouldn’t have been seen because of the “mist”.

The vast majority of Chinese, many of whom have no Internet access and live in rural areas, were pleased and impressed by the result of the opening extravaganza, produced by filmmaker Zhang Yimou, which they saw as a moment of national glory.

National Glory. That seems to be the entire theme for the Olympics since Beijing was chosen several years ago. The Chinese have done everything for their national glory and the Olympics are one big commercial for China and NBC’s role is despicable, but that’s an entirely different post.