We watched the closing ceremony last night on television – a huge North Korean style extravaganza. I couldn't make head or tail of it, although the plethora of aliens in bicycle helmets and glowing green men suggested some kind of space race theme. (This is entirely speculative, but it would vaguely make sense, since the opening ceremony depicted China's history and thus the closing ceremony might depict the future, and China certainly has space travel ambitions. If anyone has any better ideas, let me know.) If you think I'm trying to read too much into it, rest assured that there is no state-sponsored cultural event in China that does not carry a message, and we now know that from leaks to the press that the opening and closing ceremonies were subject to massive political intervention.
The best, I thought, that could be said of London's uninspiring display was that at least it didn't involve thousands of soldiers who'd been rehearsed to the limits of their endurance in order to please the politburo's endless tweaking of the show. But what political vision did Beijing's ceremony portray? I can't even begin to think. If all this sounds sour, the comparison to North Korea comes from Zhang Yimou himself, who directed both shows.
Interesting, I thought, that Jacques Rogge's speech referred not to a wonderful or fantastic Olympics, but to a diplomatically and neutrally worded 'exceptional' Olympics. For the IOC, dealing with Beijing has been like nothing they've ever had to do before. He thanked the thousands of volunteers – who were unfailingly cheerful – before he thanked BOCOG, the Beijing Olympic organising committee.
And yet, despite the almost tragic politics of the thing, I am a convert to the Olympics. I am not a sports fan, and thought I would be left cold. But I was wowed by the athletic prowess I saw, and moved by the teamwork, and by the extraordinary effort. On Friday, we went to the Bird's Nest and watched the end of the 50km men's walk. It's a strange sport, to my mind, with the athletes surely having to struggle not to run. But one couldn't help but be full of admiration when these men, who'd walked through 50km in the roasting heat, collapsing when they got to the finishing line.
Some of the most impressive athletes have been the Chinese, who won more gold medals than any other country. Every athlete from every country is of course under pressure to perform. But it has been very evident that the Chinese athletes are under exponentially greater pressure to perform in order to fulfil the leadership's gold medal ambitions. After the match in which the Chinese women's volleyball team won bronze, their coach was interviewed on Chinese television. The interviewer asked whether there had been too much pressure, and the coach burst into tears. Athletes had been told – although he didn't say this – that a gold medal was the only medal that counted.
The Bird's Nest is a beautiful stadium, stunning from outside and intimate inside. Although whoever chose the lights made a mistake.
At the moment, the media seems to be portraying the Bird's Nest and the surrounding Olympic Green, as the new heart of Beijing, replacing the politically problematic Tiananmen Square. But at the moment it's a vast concrete slab, unrelentingly free of shade, and it's a vast tranche of real estate. The end of the Olympics leaves China's leadership facing many challenges. The Olympic Green is only one of them.
Meanwhile, to put all this in perspective, on Saturday afternoon we went to the Crab Island water park, thinking that it would be empty because everyone would be gathered around their televisions watching the Olympics. We were wrong, everyone was at the beach.
