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Ironic, the Olympics opening ceremony focusing on the beauty of millennia-old Chinese tradition...

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Bicoastal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:12 PM
Original message
Ironic, the Olympics opening ceremony focusing on the beauty of millennia-old Chinese tradition...
...given how hard Mao and the Cultural Revolution tried to wipe it all out.

Sorry, rant off.
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MichiganVote Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:13 PM
Response to Original message
1. Mao was a mere blip in this civilizations history and not even the most
notorious of China's leaders.
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Bicoastal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Most notorious? Maybe not...
...but it would be wrong to downplay the very great effect he had on millions of lives during the decades he was in power. Modern China can be divided into two periods--pre-Mao and post-Mao.
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MichiganVote Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:30 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. Actually it was the emergence of trade with the West, most notably, Britain
that ushered in the first modern period in China. Followed by the Opium War. in the 19th century.
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NewJeffCT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:35 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. Sun Yat-Sen is considered the founder of modern China
He was the first leader of the short-lived Republic after the fall of the Last Emperor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen
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BeyondGeography Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:14 PM
Response to Original message
2. Directed by Zhang Yimou, Gong Li's muse (Raise the Red Lantern...)
Unbelieveable imagery:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/08/sports/0808-CEREMONY_index.html
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NewJeffCT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:16 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. and, if you saw "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers"
You'd know Yimou's got a knack for large scale imagery.
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BeyondGeography Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Color, color, color...God bless the Chinese sense of color
I'm getting the book and the DVD.
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ColbertWatcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Those are very beautiful.
I just love that stadium!
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NashVegas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #6
14. Did You Hear the Announcers Suggest
The Chinese built that stadium specific to fit his vision?

It's heartbreaking that the US cares so little for its true artists and instead promotes mercantile crap at every opportunity.
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ColbertWatcher Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:48 PM
Response to Reply #14
18. I have not heard that. Interesting. n/t
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eshfemme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-09-08 06:32 AM
Response to Reply #14
21. Well, in this case, the PRC's financing of Zhang Yimou's vision was practical minded
as they view the financing of various artists an extension of the cultural warfare they need to wage in order to be a superpower. This is an attempt at using their "soft power" to aid their "hard power" which is much like what the US does too. This is why the decline of the US reputation is such a bad thing. At least the Chinese are smart enough to know that. The only problem is that I don't think they realize that their viewpoint isn't the only one and their inability to see eye to eye with anyone is a possible Achilles' heel.
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:18 PM
Response to Original message
5. Had the same thought, listening to NPR describe it on the way home from work today.
Not having seen the opening ceremony for myself, I only have the NPR mention to go on.

I couldn't help but wonder how they depicted the events of the past 60 years out of the 5,000.

sw
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Tandalayo_Scheisskopf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:21 PM
Response to Original message
7. Mao was nothing more...
Than yet another Chinese Emperor, who like all the others, created a cult of personality around him and his family, surrounded himself with courtiers and sycophants, and attempted to wipe out all memory of the previous dynasty, while surrounding himself with warlords(The PLA). Marxism and Maoism were simply convenient names and tools to that end.

In truth, China is China, and the way they do things is the way they have always done things, with emphasis on "Harmony", a harmony that, in truth, serves the dynasty rather than the masses.
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NewJeffCT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:31 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. you're 100% correct
"meet the new boss, same as the old boss," as I often say about Chinese history.
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derby378 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:23 PM
Response to Original message
9. The opening ceremony has moved me to tears
Magnificent. Simply magnificent.

Leaving politics aside for a moment, these ceremonies have touched my heart with their sheer beauty and art.
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:39 PM
Response to Reply #9
16. Ditto n/t
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NashVegas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:33 PM
Response to Original message
12. Yimou Zhang And His Choreographer Did Brilliant Work
See Zhang's movie "To Live" sometime and you'll understand just how perfect a choice he was to direct this.


Still, I can't help but wonder if there are some Chinese hipsters watching and saying the equivalent of: "oh geeez, what schmaltz!"
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NewJeffCT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #12
15. Wasn't Spielberg the original choice
but, he resigned in protest over Chinese involvement in Sudan?
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NashVegas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-08-08 08:41 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. He Consulted
Edited on Fri Aug-08-08 08:41 PM by Crisco
I imagine on the more technical aspects.
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ellisonz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-09-08 06:25 AM
Response to Original message
19. Agreed.
I think they missed the non-violent part of Buddhism.
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eshfemme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-09-08 06:27 AM
Response to Original message
20. That's also one of my pet peeves.
That the Chinese government revel in the culture that they fucking tried to destroy themselves. The countless pedigrees, records, pieces of art that were destroyed and that are now part of their justification for ruling Asia.
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