Olympics a chance to enhance image

The enthusiasm sweeping the whole country in preparing for the Games is palpable.

Everyone from old grannies to taxi drivers in Beijing have started picking up conversational English.

Campaigns are launched in earnest to get rid of bad social manners like spitting or even talking loudly on mobile phones.

Car drivers are told to drive responsibly and considerately.

Major Chinese celebrities have come together for a nationwide advertisement to encourage social graces.

The government takes stringent anti-pollution measures and so on.

But I wonder how far would all these efforts go. It would be a great shame if these campaigns and efforts were geared solely for the Olympics and disappear when the last visitor leaves Beijing.

If people revert to their old ways after the Olympics, that would encourage outsiders to say a great deal of negative things about China. I hope that residents in Beijing learn the value of social graces, so that when the Games are over, they would want to continue with their efforts, this time to retain and create a better living environment for themselves.

And I hope a virtuous cycle would start out of Beijing, whereby other cities want the same benefits for themselves and start along the same route as Beijing, actively promoting and, more importantly, practicing social graces.

Alvin Tan, a Singaporean in China

via e-mail

The China-bashing campaign is now at its peak. The Western media accuse China of the most evil intentions - in every thing, everywhere in this world.

Although very serious, this absurd demonization is really very strange.

In recent times, China's direct influence is growing internationally. Its involvement in the solution of various problems of universal concerns - in the Korean peninsula, Darfur, Iran and so on - has proved positive and successful.

Then why, all of a sudden, have the majority of TV channels and newspapers in the US and Europe come to join in this unprecedented propagandistic attack?

There's only one possible explanation: the international image of the Western powers has never been so low since the end of the Cold War. The credibility of their foreign policies is profoundly eroded in the eyes of billions of people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Even in Russia, the honeymoon with the Western brand of "democracy" is coming to end.

By contrast, the respect and love that China is gaining around the world, thanks to its peaceful endeavors, is destined to grow even more.

The Olympics in August, too, will also enhance China's image but that is not the only case.

Further admiration for the Chinese is being already aroused in all countries because of the spontaneous, civilized and passionate ways in which huge numbers of ordinary Chinese, especially the youth, have responded to hostile campaigns by CNN, BBC and their likes. This has nothing to do with "nationalism".

Claudio Cervini, Beijing

via e-mail

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(China Daily 04/24/2008 page9)