By Ric d'Stard Lee
One of the primary aims of the games for China, at least, was to use it as a platform to promote winter Olympic sports at home. We all know a certain Eileen Gu, or Gu Ailing, who became a household name after winning three medals at these games. Unfortunately, her decision to compete for China drew the ire of mainstream American media, which exploded with accusations of her being a traitor. More worryingly, some of the rhetoric leaped into unhinged racism, denouncing Gu by calling her names and making impressions of Chinese stereotypes to spite her.
But perhaps Gu Ailing's long-term influence on the Chinese-American identity is that her success will inspire a diaspora generation who will no longer feel the need to emphasize their "American" credentials to gain White approval, which is a considerable threat to US soft power. That, her bright attitude and embracing of her Chinese roots have inspired an entire generation of young Chinese who may have never thought about winter sports before.
Despite the media hostility, athletes from all countries displayed solidarity with the measures undertaken to control COVID throughout, which helped keep everyone, not just themselves, safe. To this end, this very fact likely embarrassed the most anti-China-Beijing Olympics crowd, the UK and US, whose unhinged propaganda war seemed further to unite the host nation more than sow discord.
In conclusion, the games were a model of COVID management, symbolizing peace and international friendship in an ever-fracturing world. The "Green Games" were also the first-ever carbon-neutral games, setting a precedent in the fight against climate change. But the ultimate gold medal went to the herculean effort of containing all COVID cases from spreading outside the Olympic bubble to the rest of the population.
Yet, however positive the games were in reality, they mainly were perceived through a smudged lens of moral grandstanding and mob behavior internationally. Leading from the front, Western politicians weaponized their misplaced moral virtues helping to manufacture public outrage from the diplomatic boycott to the criticism of the opening ceremony, and the beautiful hi-tech facilities spun as "dystopian" and even the food.
Little wonder that as Western journalists found enough safety to find fault with their "dystopian cocktails," "chewy steaks," and "weird chocolate fountains" within the Olympic bubble, about 40,000 Americans died. All this is quite unfortunate because this was a concerted narrative assault on a successful international event, people, city, and culture that should have been allowed to unfold apolitically.
But the US-led smear campaign targeting the Beijing Winter Olympic Games started long before the event kicked off with the attempted diplomatic boycott. The US then backtracked and quietly requested — and received without fuss — visas for 46 consular officials. Such behavior is confusing yet fanatical in how it dehumanizes its target people while reinforcing some Anglo-Saxon exceptionalist myth that makes it impossible for recipients of such narratives to see the world objectively.
During the opening ceremony, the Chinese flag went through the representatives of China's 56 ethnic groups, including China's Muslim Uyghur community. Uyghur cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang helped deliver the Olympic flame, yet the New York Times refused to call him so.
Because the US and the West had coalesced to propagandize around this issue for years, they couldn't even call him his ethnicity because it didn't fit the embedded narrative. Such mental gymnastics were genuinely baffling. China's decision to respond professionally on the issue sent a message to western audiences that China doesn't bow or kneel to such dubious narratives from the famous empire of lies.
So Biden's, Morrison's, Trudeau's, and Johnson's pitiful "diplomatic" boycott was a resounding flop. Instead, thousands of athletes worldwide got to see China, many for the first time, interacting with genuine and happy Chinese people. Try as the West's rabid anti-China forces may, the world took note of how smoothly things played out.
As he would refer himself, Ric d'Stard Lee is a rogue-ish journo working from Hong Kong, China. Semi-prolific on US Empire, media, culture, and humans of late capitalism. Inquisitive. Tell it like it is. Sarky. Zen.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Ric d'Stard Lee:
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