Why does the Olympics seem so important to china?

Question

this a question from my asian studies homework. and i've been thinking for a while and not quite sure of my answer. please help me

Answer 1

In 1908, at a time when China was still in a period of turmoil, a famous chinese scholar asked three questions:

1. When can China send a winning athlete to the Olympics?

2. When can China send a representative team to the Olympics?

3. When can China host an Olympic Games?

At that time, these questions were effectively interpretted as asking when can China return to it's glorious past on the stage of a modern world.

So the Olympics is not only an atheletic event for the Chinese, it's an embodiment of the strength of their nation.

Answer 2

Respect for a global superpower.

I couldn't help laughing at the biggest Tibetan propaganda from the Tibetan flag avatar.

1.2 million Tibetans been killed has been blown out of proportion:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/opinio...

Prof. Barry Sautman’s 2001 paper “Is Tibet China’s Colony?: The Claim of Demographic Catastrophe” published on Columbia Journal of Asian Law. It has an impressive long list of references (332 in total!) from all types of sources: Da-liar Lama’s, newspapers, books, academic studies, etc. And it does an in-depth analysis on these references.

From non-academic side, I’d provide you two sources I read recently below (in Chinese). Both people had experience from Tibet. Again, I do not backup their figures:

Mr. Britex Xu, a Chinese scholar, was banished by the Chinese government to Tibet during 1982 - 1986, and becomes a firm criticizer of the Chinese government. He did a study on many Tibet issues in his book “Himalaya” (http://www.tangben.com/Himalaya ). In Section 2 Chapter 8 of the book, he compared the population increase between the whole China and Tibetan during 1949 - 1983 using the data published by Tibet Gov. Exile, western scholars, and western historical records. His conclusion is that the population increase of Tibetan is significantly larger than the increase of the whole China if the Chinese government had killed 1.2 million Tibetan. This is impossible given the fact of harsh conditions in Tibet. He suggested that the actual number of Tibetan being killed should be less than 200,000.

In the same chapter of the book, he referred to an estimation by Ngapoi Jigme, an advocate of Tibet independence and the Director of Tibet Division in Radio Free Asia (rfa.org) since 1996. Mr. Jigme admitted that the number of 1.2 million is largely exaggerated. The actual number he thought is about 300,000 - 400,000.

In Tibet; they eat horse meat and probably that person who said that Chinese eat dog meats isn't even a Tibetan or just a useless prominent t**t. I'm must commend for the thumb up-pers for being the dumbest person in here. Congratulations.

Answer 3

because china is the olympic venue

Answer 4

not just china... the olympic games are (after the soccer world cup) the most important sports event in the world, including america.

and they are important to china because they won 40 or more gold medals and of course: the olympics are in china!

Answer 5

Image  

Answer 6

To Rob187: actually no, we don't care about the olympics that much at all here in the US. We were all for protesting and boycotting these olympics, and honestly I'll bet it's only a matter of time before we decide to just stop showing up at all.

Answer 7

China has a negative image. They're oppresive, no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, and hwat religion is allowed to take place is closely monitored by state police. They spent over 40 billion on the olympics so they could try to cast a facade over their negative image. They want to lure in more business prospects and they beleive hosting the olympics willnot only make them more accepted by the world, but will also show that China itself is a force to be reckoned with.

Basically, it's to upstage the USA.  

Answer 8

because they have been so politically backward for the majority of their country's existence. communism has been a troubling factor throughout history and china was controlled by it in just about every aspect. these games were a colossal step towards assimilating into the world.

hope that helps.

Answer 9

Because China is usually quite closed to the world. This is one of the first times that they've opened up their borders like this. As they are a communist country where they do not have free speech as we do, and the government carefully controls any information about the events in the country, this is an unprecedented situation where so many are able to report from China and have access to the country and its people. Of course they wanted to be careful of the image that they portrayed and they wanted to show their best face.

Answer 10

it's a sign that China is been accepted by these worldwide organisations, they worked just as hard to get into WTO.

Olympic gives a country a chance to showcase themselves to the entire world, I think you can say it's very important to every single country that have ever hosted or will ever host the Olympics.

Answer 11

It's to make them look good. The n***s did the same thing in 1936. It's all about image for a totalitarian state. They evicted people illegally from their homes, moved the "undesirables" out of town, took dog meat off the menus in Beijing (yes, really), faked the singer at the opening ceremony by having someone that looks "better" lip sync the song.

And, it's to justify their illegal invasion and occupation of Tibet. They are committing cultural genocide, 1.2 million plus Tibetans are dead because of their invasion and occupation. Torture, human rights, no religious freedom, lack of free access to outside reporters -- all are swept under the rug so that they can hide the truth about themselves.

It's all for money, of course. Invest in China. Spend money there. Outsource jobs to China. Forget about human rights.

Answer 12

It is a chance for them to lie senselessly through their teeth to make their country seem attractive.