I’m Not Watching the Olympics…
And neither are a lot of Chinese either. I do find the “cheer squads” cute, in a Cultural Revolution-type way…
Venues across Beijing were dotted Tuesday by the cheerful cheer squads. At the Fengtai Sports Center Softball Field, about 200 people sporting yellow shirts with “Cheering From Beijing Workers” inscribed on them in English and Mandarin sat in the scorching sun in the outfield bleachers, which were otherwise largely empty. Covering their heads with white caps, towels or pieces of newspaper to stave off the heat, they waved tiny red flags, red fans and inflatable noisemakers. Several described themselves as blue-collar workers who had gotten tickets from their factories or companies and had been schooled in the art of good cheering.“Today, 50 workers came to do the cheerleading job,” said Wang Li, 30, who works for an automobile manufacturer in Beijing. “Our company sends us to softball today, but other workers were sent to other venues to do some work. We come here on shifts.”
Wang said the workers had been coached. They learned: “Olympics, Go, Go, Go! China, Go, Go, Go! Beijing, Go, Go, Go!”
Said Wang Wei: “The volunteers are assigned to cheer for both sides in order to provide good atmosphere. . . . The responsibility rests with the . . . venue managers. If they find there are not enough people, too many empty seats, [they should] organize some cheerleaders.”
It will be interesting to see what the ratings are here. I haven’t seen a single instant of the games and honestly haven’t had any problem whatsoever avoiding them. Between cable TV, the Internet and the beautiful weather we’ve been having recently, there are much better things to do.
mgroves:
Regardless of the whole China political thing, I find the olympics to be incredibly dull. Not to mention that baseball isn’t an olympic sport anymore. I mean, come ON.
13 August 2008, 8:58 pm