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China

Amusing Coverage of Opening Ceremony

By thomascrampton ⋅ August 10, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

The Globe and Mail ran the above amusing cartoon while, elsewhere in Canada, the Edmonton Sun’s Terry Jones could not praise the opening ceremony highly enough. Wonder if even the China Daily had a lead this strong.

Olympic opening ceremonies the best ever

By Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun

BEIJING – If any future Olympic Games is ever credited with a more awesome, brilliant, inspired, powerful or original opening ceremonies it might have to be because everybody on the planet developed amnesia.

The spectacular show which China produced to welcome the world to the XXIX Olympic Games and welcome themselves to the world was almost certainly the greatest show in the history of the greatest show in sport.

With Canada earning one of the loudest welcoming responses in the parade of athletes, it was a night of many story lines.

Lest you think him too uncritical, Jones did find fault with the ceremony:

If there was a criticism at all, at least beyond the fact it took more than four hours, it might be that the opening ceremonies were so overwhelmingly awesome that the one thing they lacked was a light, delightful, bubbly touch. In that way, the ceremonies might end up being a microcosm of the next 16 days – awesome but not that much fun.

Pat Forde at ESPN.com had a suggestion for Brits:

The only people who didn’t enjoy the awe-inspiring Opening Ceremony of the XXIX Olympic Summer Games had to be the folks with the London Olympic organizing committee. They host the 2012 Summer Games, meaning they have to follow the greatest show on Earth — and, for my yuan, the greatest show in Opening Ceremony history.

If I were the Brits, I’d punt and go with Monty Python reruns. Unless they can top a gold medalist elevating and running on air around the entire circumference of National Stadium to light the torch.

Hat tip to Boris for the cartoon.

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China, Olympics

Discussion

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Comments for “Amusing Coverage of Opening Ceremony”

  • Lightbulb
    NBC seems to be more concerned about blocking broadcasts from other countries, not because of their right, but to avoid Americans seeing the editing that NBC took the liberty of doing to the Opening Ceremony.

    After comparing with the BBC broadcast, it is clear NBC discarded certain images of the artistic presentation of the event. At least one of those images was clearly political. The delayed broadcast on Friday night, a blatant act of commercialism, outraged thousands of Americans. However, should this broadcasting company be made to answer about the censorship it imposed on 260 million Americans?
    The Olympics are a legitimate news event. Should we expect the same altering of the Closing Ceremonies?
  • "If I were the Brits, I’d punt and go with Monty Python reruns."

    Whoo-Hoo !!!

    ~ Alex
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thomascramptonconf

Thomas Crampton was a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for more than a decade, reporting from five continents, writing a column on Asia and covering Asian politics, economics and culture. Currently based in Hong Kong, he writes here about China, the Internet and New Media seen from Asia, while also advising companies on digital communication strategies. For more information click here...