Text-Only Version
Michael Socolow, Assistant
Professor of Journalism: "I think it's a brilliant staging for
tourism for China and sort of an announcement of China into the
modern world, but the Olympics have always been like this, even
before the Nazis in 1936--the Nazis had only intensified something
that had already existed. For instance, in the 1932 Olympics in Los
Angeles--they ran into serious money problems--it was a huge attempt
to give Southern California an international reputation. But in the
Chinese example, I really think, again, they've taken it to enormous
extremes. In Moscow in 1980, we never saw, for instance--most of us
in America, because of the boycott--we never saw just what an
incredible staging that is. The IOC is not Democratic. The IOC is
not in the business of fomenting Democracy, despite what they said
about China--it's about nationalism. That's what the IOC is--it's
about nations competing in a forum once every four years. And that's
what we're watching--we're watching a really strong illustration of
Chinese nationalism."
