China puts lid on Beijing culture

[mikegarrison]

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008087495_olystrict02.html

With the Olympic Games just six days away, Beijing is winding tighter each day, and visitors need wander no farther than the city's bar district to experience the preparatory fervor. Police are out in force, carrying out orders to increase security and clean up the district, called Sanlitun, with zeal.

Horne has been summoned to the local police station three times in as many months for somewhat bewildering and intimidating interrogations that last for hours and probe his views on topics from Tibetan separatism to whether Jackie Chan or Jet Li has the best kung fu moves.

The last time the police wanted to see him, an officer came to the club and told an employee to send "the black guy" over.

"I call them my 'special' experiences," Horne said, smiling tightly as he uses his mother's term to avoid saying something negative.

[mikegarrison]

It's ironic that they are so concerned about controlling every aspect of how the world views them through these games that they don't seem to realize what we are really viewing: their mania for control.

[Phaedrus]

Its a trade off the authorities are willing to make. They would rather have control and deal with the fall out later. Its very totalitarian.

[OverAndUnder]

The USA media and the major political systems are taking us in the same direction -- there is no reality, there is only the battle by pundits and bloggers to describe, ex post facto what reality felt like at the time and. There is nothing you can't propagandize your way out of later.

To the Nielsen/Arbitron/PageRank victor belong the spoils of public perception.

[Phaedrus]

www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11848192

Here is The Economist's take on the Olympics and China.

www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/opinion/04lin-liu.html

Here is an Opinions piece in the NYT. Looks like it is the cultural revolution all over again.