London Calling: Brits Take Over Games

LONDON, Aug. 24, 2008— -- Watching the Beijing final ceremony today, I was struck by the fact that the London portion of the show was a drop in the ocean compared to the extravagance and showbiz hype of the Chinese production.

Then I realized that the British, in their quaint and understated way, were making a big statement. I think they were saying: "We are comfortable in our own skin, we don't need to prove anything to the world."

The Brits rolled out an iconic red double-decker London bus (although someone lost their nerve a bit and failed to make it an old smoke belching model so beloved by Londoners and tourists), and a small British dance troupe began acting out a typical morning commute in London, i.e., an everyone-for-yourself scrum to get on the bus.

It was an endearing scene to anyone who has muttered this Shakespearean line to themselves at a crowded bus stop: "Once more into the breech, dear friends."

Unlike the Chinese government, which shut down much of Beijing's industry to create a false sense that the skies are blue, the London show featured many umbrellas, as if to say: "Don't kid yourself, it's going to rain on you, it's a tradition to get soaked in London, and you'll have a great time, anyway."

In other words, in a way that many outsiders so often don't get, the British, it seems to me, were mocking Chinese hypocrisy. But you won't find it in the British playbook. The British can be so subtle, that when they say you are interesting, they probably mean that you are brash.

On top of the red bus, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page cut loose with riffs that reminded the world that his British band was a pioneer in cultural anarchy and rebellion. That kind of challenge to authority and tradition is something the ruling Chinese Communist Party has never been wild about, or tolerated.

For a few seconds in the show, a young British girl walked across a black and white striped matt that all Brits know as a zebra crossing. It is where a pedestrian has the absolute right to step out into the road in the path of speeding cars, trucks and buses, and the drivers MUST stop. The zebra crossing is iconic of the rights of the individual being greater than larger forces.