When Will the Olympics End?
For Beijing residents, it's one world, but maybe not one dream.
BEIJING, July 23, 2008 — -- With just over two weeks left until the Beijing Olympics, the streets of China's capital are lined with flowing banners, blooming flowers and flocks of smiling, uniformed volunteers. It's impossible to step into a hotel or a hutong (small street) without seeing the ubiquitous slogan: "One World, One Dream."
But while Olympic fever has swept the entire city, there are some Beijing residents who find the games to be anything but a dream.
A Pew Global Attitudes survey released this week found that many urban Chinese are overwhelmingly optimistic about the Olympics. Seventy-nine percent of citizens indicated the games were personally important to them.
However, according to the survey, 34 percent thought the country was paying too much attention to the Games. In newspapers and the blogosphere, many seem to agree.
Put Away Your Washcloths and Bicycles
The Olympic preparations have brought a litany of rules and regulations, restricting public and private transportation, forbidding unauthorized outdoor events and silencing live music and business events.
In the Beijing News, citizens expressed annoyance at highly specific regulations that banned barbershops from drying their towels outside and shopowners from parking bicycles at their doorways.
One opinion essay agreed with newly imposed traffic restrictions that ban cars with odd-numbered license plates one day, even-numbered plates the next, in an effort to promote cleaner air. But the writer complained that regulating towels and bicycles "will only cause unnecessary inconvenience."
"Just imagine, if we go to other countries for the Games, do we care that towels are hung outside and bicycles are parked at doorways?"
When "Contraception" Means "No Olympics"
Internet users suffering from Olympic fatigue have created slang terms to express the inconvenience caused by the Beijing games.
The Chinese language is made up of tens of thousands of written characters, some of which have identical pronunciations. Word riddles are often used as jokes between friends and a way to indicate dissatisfaction or sarcasm.
In Mandarin Chinese, "bi yun" means contraception or avoiding pregnancy.
According to the popular online portal Sohu.com, "bi yun" is now being used in reference to avoiding the Olympics or escaping from Beijing to another destination during the 17-day affair. Becoming pregnant, or "shou yun," represents traveling to Beijing to watch the Olympics or experience the excitement.
The play on words is catching on fast.
