Remember the ethnic minorities? They were fake too.

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Remember the ethnic minorities? They were fake too.

Fri, 08/15/2008 - 2:55pm

NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

The Telegraph's indefatigable Richard Spencer reports on yet another bit of fakery at the opening ceremonies in Beijing:

[T]he children supposedly representing the country's 56 ethnic groups were in fact all from the same one, the majority Han Chinese race. [...]
They were dressed in costumes associated with the country's ethnic minorities, including those from troubled areas such as Tibet and the muslim province of Xinjiang. Such displays of "national unity" are a compulsory part of any major state occasion.

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected.

Asked about this, a Beijing Olympics spokesman was nonplussed, telling reporters, "I think you are being very meticulous... I would argue it is normal for dancers, performers, to be dressed in other races' clothes."

Blake Hounshell | Permalink |

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Getting Old

by amik777 on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 2:53pm

Isn't all this "news" about fake this and fake that getting a little bit old? It was entertaining enough to hear about the fake fireworks and there are other reasons that make it interesting to read about allegations that the Chinese gymnastics team could include girls younger than 16, but this? I am rather confident that if the Chinese authorities really thought that displaying national unity via the children of diverse ethnic backgrounds was significant enough they would have brought those children in. I know this is a blog, but I get a sense that there is quiet rejoice at any news that make the Chinese efforts seem any less significant than they were.

morality universal or relative?

by jacobs25 on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 3:27pm

I think that this mood that Chinese actions are ok is wrong. I mean, would it be ok if I put off a huge production and got a bunch of white guys to dressup in black face and portray American cultural diversity? Would it be ok to lie about the ages of little kids so they can compete? I haven't even mentioned things like arresting journalists, protesters, etc.. or appropriating homes without adequate compensation to build stadiums (ok that might fly in America)... My point is that I don't think we should be CHina apologists. I think there is a right and a wrong. And I think on the whole America does right and China does a lot wrong. I don't think we should hold them to a lower standard. We didn't for the Soviets, we shouldn't for the Chinese... or the Russians for that matter. I say 'booo' to China's Olympic trickery. While these are only small events in the scheme of thins, they are indicitive of the lawless, subversive mindset that is the Chinese politburo.

I don't think the proper

by Khalid on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 3:47pm

I don't think the proper comparison here is black face. It's more like dressing up Anglo-Saxons in Italian folk clothing or people of French origin in German garb. Also, if you watch a lot of American TV, you've got a lot of this going on, with white people dressing up like Arabs, or people of other ethnicities. This "fake" isn't all that bad at all. As for the rest of it, yeah, some of the stuff the Chinese have done is pretty bad. Cheating by using little kids is pretty bad. I don't think they should be arresting protesters or journalists, but it isn't like they don't do this on a regular basis, and I think it's unfair to demand they treat foreign journalists any differently than they treat their own (especially when these people know the risk they're taking). China isn't Denmark. It's an authoritarian state. That's where it is in history right now and there isn't much anybody can (or is going to) do about it.

Right but...

by Blake Hounshell on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 3:58pm

... if the intention here was to show how tolerant China was of its ethnic minorities and how Beijing is celebrating its diversity for the Olympics, isn't that undermined when you learn that the purported minorities were all, in fact, Han Chinese?

True

by amik777 on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 5:44pm

... but if that in fact was their intention, once again, they probably would have brought the actual kids from the various ethnic backgrounds. From reading the post, it almost seems as if the minorities would have refused to participate in what is a sham presentation of national unity and respect for diversity. Given how much effort the authorities put into the events, I doubt that would have been the case. The point I am trying to make is not that there are no problems with respect for diversity in China, nor that they are not insignificant, but rather that mentioning each screw up with the ceremonies, such as the lip-syncing of the little girl seems almost trivial at this point. Most people understand that the display of grandeur at the ceremonies was kind of like the Potemkin villages, but pointing each and every screw up seems almost petty.

Well, given that this is

by Khalid on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 6:27pm

Well, given that this is China we're talking about, it doesn't make much of a difference. You have to take any testament of "national unity" in a country with a bankrupt ideology and limited religious freedom with a grain of salt. themoornextdoor.wordpress.com

are the girls too young

by inkinwater on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 5:52am

By the way, there is a documentary made by the Chinese state TV station about the women gymnasts. It shows this bunch of 11 to 12 year old girls went through screening, training, competition. And this was shown in 2003 on national TV.

Chinese Gymnast

by Mindy Jageacks on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 8:36am

They starve girls like that, because their bodies have to be small to do Gynmastics. That's why they don't mature like other girls who aren't Gymnasts. But in other sports they also recomend that they be at a low weight. Their theroy is that if your skinnier and smaller with more muscle and less body fat, Your a better Athlete.