Since China was granted the right to hold the 2008 Olympics Games, heaps and heaps of publicity and activities have been conducted throughout China, especially the event-holder, Beijing.
A non-profit commercial about Olympics Games always appears on BTV channels these days. A schoolgirl explains in an innocent but proud tone what happens in her family after the IOC¡¯s historic decision. "My dad is a taxi driver and he is learning English to serve the foreign passengers when Olympics come. My mum is smiling to every customer visiting her counter at the shopping mall. And my granny is making pieces of Olympics craftwork at home!"
I thought people should have done these things when China started opening up to the world and when the great man Deng Xiaoping said that China, as a socialist country, should pay equal attention to materialist civilization (wuzhi wenming - to have better commodities and facilities) and spiritual civilization (jingshen wenming - to have high morals).
There have already been heaps and heaps of foreign guests in China and they actually constitute a large percentage of the taxi passengers. My dad, as well as his workmates, who used to be a Beijing taxi driver in the early 1980s spoke English to foreign visitors. However, not many taxi drivers can speak understandable English at present. So have the 20 years between his time and our time been a blank of English? When our great chairman Mao was alive, he presented an award of honour to a shop assistant selling candies at Baihuo Dalou and his name is Zhang Binggui. His service was reputed to be magnificent and he was able to measure the weight of the candies with his hands instead of a balance. Now his statue is still standing in front of the shopping mall on Wangfujing Street. As for the granny, if she is good at making traditional artistic works, why didn¡¯t she make some before and give them to the old, the lonely and the homeless?
Though it is a piece of non-commercial TV ad, yet it shows our life has been absolutely commercialised by the Olympics Games. How many shows on BTV channel talk about Olympics Games? How many concerts have been held in the name of Olympics Games? How many junk and ugly Olympics mascots have been consumed? How many so-called volunteers have appeared for the Olympics?
I have been perplexed by the present over-heated situation. What would people watch after the 2008 Olympic Games finishes? What would people do if they don¡¯t have a grand name to devote their energy to? Where are we going to?
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