Like most people around the world (live, in most of Asia and Europe's case), I was glued to the screen during the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. I'm not ashamed to admit I swelled up with pride and even a little choked up at places, for example when Lin Hao, that little boy who survived the Szechuan earthquake, marched in with Yao Ming.
Scanning the blogosphere afterwards was interesting, reading cynical comments sprinkled among the many raves about the ceremony's beauty and precision, and celebration of China's cultural heritage. Some examples of the negative notes include:
"They are all unpaid. China is exploiting these performers!" 15,000 performers rehearsed for eight months, so even the logistics of feeding, clothing and transporting them over eight months would have cost $1000 each, or a total of $15M alone. Almost all these performers would have been volunteers from the army or the civil forces, and they would all have willingly competed for the honor of representing China on this momentous occasion. So I wouldn't say they were exploited.
"The stunning Olympics opening ceremony? Faked." Only the 28 fireworks footprint segment, leading up to the opening, was a CGI sequence of actual fireworks launched, and the organizers made no effort to misrepresent it as true footage.
"This is where all the money we owe them is going." Obviously from a US blog comment.
One major sour note though, came from the Chinese blogosphere itself. I was initially puzzled by the muted response of our China compatriots online, especially in the first few hours after the broadcast. I subsequently found out why:
While foreigners around the world rave about this years Olympics opening ceremony being one of the best ever, local Chinese were telling a different story. It has been the most popular topic in the largest forums/BBS (such as Mop, Tianya) since the Opening.
Frustrated Chinese complain that CCTV version failed to capture many of the exciting (and in some cases crucial) camera angles and Chinese announcers only managed to provide vacuous commentary. Meanwhile, the American commentators were able to go into great detail about the numerous traditional Chinese elements and symbols used throughout the intricately planned ceremony, displaying a much more complete knowledge of what was happening than in the Chinese version (granted, the delayed broadcasting of the ceremony by NBC gave the commentators time to do their homework). Some even go as far as to assert that Chinese will have to retract their accusations against foreign media for biased reporting since this time they presented China with such creativity and expertise that “even Americans are unable to find fault.”
Turns out CCTV created its own broadcast for within China, while most TV stations around the world used the BOB feed.
In spite of it all, this was an Opening Ceremony for the history books, and a great coming out party for China.