To be read as a direct continuation of Part 12; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-2022-winter-olympics-opening_21.html
Cauldron Lighting.
It fell to Dinigeer Yilaujiang and Zhao Jiawen to jointly light the Olympic Cauldron.
Generally considered to be the peak of every Opening Ceremony. The lighting of the Olympic Cauldron is traditionally a spectacular affair.
In the 2020 Summer Olympic Opening Ceremony held in Tokyo, Japan. Naomi Osaka stood at the foot of a pyramid representing Mount Fuji.
The mountain opened to reveal a staircase resembling flows of lava. As the pearl-like orb at the top rotated and opened like a blossoming flower.
By Olympic standards that was actually considered a low-key cauldron lighting. In keeping with the theme of environmental conservation of the Hydrogen fuelled Olympic Cauldron.
The cauldron lighting at the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Also held in Beijing, China. Was much more ostentatious.
Then the task fell to the final Torch Bearer, Li Ning. A gymnast who is China's most decorated Olympian.
Having won six medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, US. The first games in which China was able to compete as the People's Republic of China.
Upon retiring from sport Li Ning established his own sportswear company, Li-Ning Company Limited. A company which now sees him worth around US$1bn. Yet only the 407th wealthiest person in China.
Still holding the Olympic Torch Li Ning was hoisted on wires to the roof of the arena. Where he ran a lap of the rim of the stadium roof, at a perilous 90 angle.
He then used the torch to light a fuse embedded into the rim of the stadium roof. The fuse burned to the base of the cauldron structure. Then burned its way up, around the scroll shape before finally igniting the cauldron at the top.
In the earlier section which I entitled; "A Quantum of Celebration." We were introduced into the large but simple metal frame structure. In the shape of a Snowflake, made up of smaller Snowflakes. Each bearing the name of a competing nation.
This Snowflake structure had reappeared at the end of the section which immediately preceded the Torch Relay. The section I entitled; "Those Damned Doves" ended with children surrounding the Snowflake structure forming the shape of a love heart.
The Torch Relay ended with Dinigeer Yilaujiang and Zhao Jiawen entering that group of children. To stand behind the Snowflake structure.
Given the theatrics of the 2008 cauldron lighting we were all excited to see what would happen next.
Perhaps Dinigeer Yilaujiang, Zhao Jiawen and the entire Snowflake structure would be lifted on wires towards the heavens. As if being sent into orbit or to the source of the Yellow River (Huang he).
Instead they simply mounted the Olympic Torch within the Snowflake structure. Then stepped back, as the Snowflake structure was lifted on wires to around midway in the air between the arena floor and the arena roof.
The Olympic Torch was the Olympic Cauldron. The most simple, basic Olympic Cauldron you could imagine.
This stripped back simplicity was really the main motif of the Opening Ceremony.
Rather than dealing with a wide variety of complex global topics. It really only gave you a quick introduction to China's history and culture.
Before repeatedly reminding you that China is currently the only nation able to do Quantum Cryptography/Encryption. With its Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) satellite.
While also repeatedly mocking the US/UK for their decision to pass up the opportunity to at least try and catch up with China. Through their disastrous attempts to hijack my relationship with Miley Cyrus.
The way that it was executed was also very simple. Most of the Opening Ceremony was done in the form of Light Projection, Laser Projection or with the giant LED screen hidden beneath the arena floor.
This allowed for extremely intelligent and in depth discussion about the sub-atomic physics of light. Around which Quantum Cryptography is based.
Along with the vital role in global trade played by Semi-Conductors. The Rare Earth Minerals needed to produce them.
However it had none of the ostentatious grandeur of the 2008 Olympic Opening ceremony. With its 2,008 drummers in traditional Chinese costumes. Amid as cast of almost 10,000 performers.
Take for example the fireworks in the shape of branches of a Huangshan (Yellow Mountains) Pine Tree. Which ended the section I entitled; "Opening Speeches."
This raised a range of topics including China's ancient Animist beliefs - "The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors." Nazi Germany's appropriation of the Swastika symbol. China's burgeoning domestic environmental movement.
All of which took me some 1,200 words and most of the day. Not to explain fully. More to just, really, make you aware of topics to read up on yourself.
However visually, as part of the experience. Those fireworks lasted for two, possibly three seconds.
The director of the Opening Ceremony, Zhang Yimou, has said that the decision to use the Olympic Torch as the Olympic Cauldron. Was to symbolise environmental sustainability and set the standard for a carbon neutral games and global future.
That is certainly a valid opinion. Probably the most valid opinion. As the entire thing was his idea.
However representing the more general motif of the Opening Ceremony, the lack of ostentatious grandeur. The most simple Olympic Cauldron imaginable also went to something much deeper within Chinese society.
As I'm sure we all know by now. Having not only been mentioned multiple times during this Opening Ceremony but also throughout the incredibly recent 2020 Summer games. China experienced a civil war between 1927 and 1949.
This Chinese Civil War (1927-1949) lasted for so long. That the entire Second World War was really only something that happened in the middle of it.
The war came to an end in 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party, largely led by Chairman Mao Zedong, emerged victorious. Establishing the People's Republic of China.
As has also been discussed extensively here, alongside in Japan. The US did not recognise China as China until 1972.
When then US President Nixon visited Mao Zedong in Beijing. This recognition opened China up to the World. Really defining the World as we know it today.
Obviously President Nixon's foot touching the tarmac at Beijing Airport didn't instantly change the World in a moment. It merely symbolically marked the start of a period of transition. Both in the US' attitude towards China and changes within Chinese society itself.
When China was first established as a Communist state. It followed traditional Marxist-Leninist Communism. That is Communist theory developed by Karl Marx which had first been put into practice in Russia by Vladimir Lenin.
Communism isn't really an economic theory or model. So much as a political belief that power lies in the hands of the workers. Capitalism is a system which exploits the workers. So the workers must unite to overthrow Capitalism.
Karl Marx drew up his political theory in 19th Century Germany, during the Industrial Revolution. So by; "Workers" he meant people who worked in factories and heavy industries.
He didn't really use the term; "Workers." Instead preferring the term; "Proletariat" from the Latin for; "Producing Offspring." By which he meant people who earn a wage in return for the work they do in someone else's factory.
The thing is that this never really applied to China.
As was explained in the section which I entitled; "Dandelion." 19th Century China was not dominated by the Industrial Revolution.
Instead it was dominated by the decline of Imperial China. With much of the territory of the Qing Dynasty being nothing more than colonies or; "Cantons" of foreign Colonial powers.
So one of Mao Zedong's first policies was to bring the Industrial Revolution to China. A rapid, 5 year, shift away from a farming based society to an industrialised one. Known as; "The Great Leap Forward." Introduced in 1958.
The sudden removal of large numbers of workers from farms to factories. Along with new Georgian argrian policies which simply didn't work and a series of natural disasters. Meant The Great Leap Forward was a catastrophic failure.
By 1962 the five year plan of The Great Leap Forward had been abandoned. Amid the; "Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961)." In which around 55 million people starved to death. Something like 10% of China's total population.
Embattled by the failure of The Great Leap Forward. In 1966 Mao Zedong launched his own interpretation of Communism. Officially known as; "Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party" but as; "Maoism" outside of China.
Maoism held that unlike in Marxism power is not held by the workers, the Proletariat. Which it viewed as a bourgeois urban elite. As they actually were in a largely non-industrialised China.
Instead Maoism believed that power is held by the Peasants. The people who toil on farms, exploited by their Feudal lords.
Particularly Marxist-Leninist Communism has the concept of; "The Revolutionary Vanguard." An elite group within the population. Who through their superior understanding and wisdom must lead the masses in revolution.
This is an attitude you still very much see in western Progressive politicians. Along with the US media. Particularly Social Media.
Maoist Communism however introduced the concept of the; "Mass Line." Essentially that there is no such thing as the self-appointed elite of the Revolutionary Vanguard. Instead it is the masses who must move together towards revolution.
This all conveniently allowed Mao Zedong to lead his supporters against the bourgeois, urban proletarian vanguard. Who were trying to depose him in the wake of the failure of The Great Leap Forward.
This plunged China into 10 years of an almost intra-Communist Party civil war. Known as the; "Cultural Revolution" this saw Mao's faction and those opposed slaughter each other in both large numbers and imaginative ways.
Maoism really fetishised the lifestyle of a peasant farmer. While rejecting all forms of industrialisation. Including the industrialisation of farming. As seen in Europe during the Second Agricultural Revolution.
So the lives of ordinary Chinese people certainly didn't improve during the Cultural Revolution. Arguably they got much worse.
In was towards the last years of the Cultural Revolution that Mao Zedong greeted US President Nixon in 1972. It ended with Mao Zedong's death in 1976.
After two years of an internal Communist Party struggle. Deng Xiaoping replaced Mao Zedong as China's de facto leader in 1978.
Deng Xiaoping also produced his own interpretation of Communism. "Deng Xiaoping's Thought by the Chinese Communist Party."
In doing this he borrowed the idea of; "Scientific Socialism" from the French Anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Famous for the phrase; "All Property Is Theft." Even if the rejoinder; "All Possession Is Freedom" is often forgotten.
Scientific Socialism calls for a society led by those who are experts in their field. Not people who draw their power from their ability to dumb the population down to the point they support them.
A government which draws its power from reason. Rather than the sort of Personality Cult you still very often see surround western Progressive politicians.
A; "Technocratic Government." As it is more commonly referred to these days.
In adopting this idea Deng Xiaoping was able to end the factional infighting of the Cultural Revolution. The battles between the cults of the Proletarian Vanguard and the Peasant Mass Line.
He also launched the; "Beijing Spring (1978-1979)." In which ordinary people were not only allowed to, but also encouraged. To speak out about the suffering they had experienced during the Cultural Revolution and criticise the Communist Party officials responsible.
The name was chosen as a deliberate reference to the; "Prague Spring." Further underlining the rift between China and Soviet Russia caused by the latter's 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.
At around 18:06 on 30/4/22 (UK date) annoyingly I will have to finish this on Monday.
Edited at around 17:30 on 2/5/22 (UK date) to tidy the above and copy & paste;
Deng Xiaoping also re-embraced one of the main ideas behind The Great Leap Forward. The; "Primary Stage of Socialism."
Essentially China had not yet gone through the industrialisation and the economic development that goes with it.
Meaning it had not reached the point where Karl Marx had drawn up his political theory. So was not yet able to unite the workers in revolution.
Instead China must first go through industrialisation and economic development. In order to arrive at the point on which Karl Marx had based his theory.
Perhaps most importantly. Deng Xiaoping revolutionised the way in which China thought about how it would go through that industrialisation and economic development.
Marxist-Leninist Communism believes that markets are inherently Capitalist. Capitalism's sole purpose is to exploit the workers.
So the almost infinite number of, often irrational, individual decisions which make up markets. Must be replaced by a single, centrally planned economy.
A system to serve each person in accordance to their needs. As defined by that small, self-appointed elite of the Revolutionary Vanguard.
Deng Xiaoping felt that markets are not inherently Capitalist. So had some role to play in helping China advance beyond the Primary Stage of Socialism.
As he rather quotably put it;
"It doesn't matter if a cat is yellow, white or black. If it catches mice, then it is a good cat."
When he invited US President Nixon to Beijing. Mao Zedong probably envisioned a future in which a single Chinese State Owned Enterprise (SOE) would be able to sell goods to private US companies.
Deng Xiaoping created a system whereby not only were multiple Chinese SOE's able to compete with each other. To sell goods to private US companies. Certain Chinese people would be permitted to set up their own private companies.
This was certainly the case for Li Ning. Whose Olympic journey from champion to US dollar billionaire was really the story of Deng Xiaoping's China.
This introduction of market principles to China is officially known as; "Socialism With Chinese Characteristics." Unofficially it was summed up by the slogan; "Some people can get rich first."
Deng Xiaoping's reforms were incredibly successful. In the space of a decade China had developed economically to the point that a large, new middle-class had emerged.
In 1989 this new Chinese middle-class organised a popular movement demanding greater political freedoms. This so-called; "1989 Democracy Movement" organised protests in over 400 cities across China. Most notably in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
There is still much debate as to Deng Xiaoping's role in the crushing of the 1989 Democracy Movement. However it certainly brought an end to his leadership of China. He retired in November 1989.
Although it was never officially stated, let alone published as a; "Thought." The crushing of the 1989 Democracy Movement ushered in a new social contract between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people.
Essentially China's growing economic development and wealth would be the compensation. For the Chinese people no longer demanding greater and political freedoms.
The model of; "Totalitarian Capitalism."
As we've seen throughout the Opening Ceremony. China is now led by Xi Jinping.
In 2017 Xi Jinping was able to publish his own interpretation of Communism. "Xi Jinping's Thought by the Chinese Communist Party."
In doing so Xi Jinping became only the third Chinese leader to have his interpretation of Communism added to China's constitution. Alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
Having embraced the somewhat Capitalist notion that some can get rich first. China has also found itself embracing the Capitalist problem of; "Wealth Inequality."
Many parts of China still experiences extreme poverty. Of the type that people in More Economically Developed Countries probably can't even conceive of.
The Chinese government still gets very excited. Every time it is able to move villagers out of mud huts and into actual, proper houses. It gets even more excited when it is able to connect those houses to water and power supply grids.
Something which stands in stark contrast. To the glittering skyscrapers of cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Along with US dollar billionaires like Li Ning and the 406 Chinese people who are even richer than him.
Xi Jinping's interpretation of Communism is largely focused on closing that wealth gap. Returning Chinese Communism to its Marxist-Leninist roots. The ideals of Mao Zedong before The Great Leap Forward and the adoption of Maoism.
If the Deng Xiaoping era can be summed up by; "Some people can get rich first." Xi Jinping's era could almost be summed up by; "Some people are very rich. Now let's help everyone else."
Although it is worth pointing out that Xi Jinping talks in terms of this next part of China's journey taking as many as 15 generations. Suggesting he's thinking in terms of gradual wealth redistribution rather than some Great Leap Backwards.
In its application Xi Jinping's interpretation of Communism has focused a lot on cracking down on ostentatious displays of wealth.
The Athlete's Parade section introduced us to the; "Clean Plate Campaign." Which was launched in 2013 but really intensified after Xi Jinping's thoughts were published in 2017.
The Clean Plate Campaign is particularly focused on people who use big restaurant meals as a way to flaunt their wealth and status. A way to remind them that there are still many Chinese who do not share in that wealth.
While also warning them not to be tempted to obtain that wealth through embezzlement or tax evasion. The idea of wealth redistribution through taxation hardly being a Revolutionary Communist idea.
A number of wealthy, high-profile Chinese people have also taken to disappearing from the public eye recently.
Most notably Jack Ma. The founder of Alibaba, China's equivalent of Amazon and the Ant Group, China's equivalent of PayPal.
In October 2020, as he was about to be declared China's richest man. Jack Ma gave a speech that was very critical of China's attempts to regulate online banking services. Such as his Ant Group.
Jack Ma was not seen in public again until late January 2021.
It was then announced that China had imposed large fines against a dozen Chinese Tech giants. Including Alibaba and Ant Group along with the similarly sized Tencent and Baidu.
Some in the west have decided this is because the Chinese Communist Party views the size of these private companies as a threat to its authority.
However if you look at things like the Evergrande real estate company. There also seems to be a high degree of concern about the instability caused by the rapid, unsustainable growth of such companies.
Another case which people outside of China may be familiar with is the actress Fan Bingbing. Who has appeared in big Hollywood movies like; "Iron Man 3" (2013) and; "X-Men: Days Of Future Past" (2014).
In May 2018 Chinese TV released details of one of Fan Bingbing's movie contracts. Showing she had committed tax evasion. With there being one salary being submitted to the tax authorities and the much bigger salary she actually received.
Fan Bingbing was then not seen in public between July and October 2018. When she apologised and announced she would be paying some US$127million in back taxes.
It seems that both Jack Ma and Fan Bingbing had experienced a version of laojiao. Re-Education Through Labour.
More recently China has been cracking down on online video games. Which increasingly rely on online payment systems. Such as Jack Ma's Ant Group.
Personally I found it entertaining that in 2021 China was really focused on Social Media celebrities. Which struck me as another example of China taking pity on the US/UK.
Pointing out that what they were trying and failing to do with myself, Miley Cyrus and Instagram. Is just really, really dumb.
Firework Finish.
It has become a tradition, a cliche almost. That these ceremonies always end in a big firework display.
As the inventors of fireworks. China did not break with that tradition.
Their firework display featured the Olympic Rings. Along with hints of the branches of a Yellow Mountains Pine.
In reference to the firework display with ended the Opening Speeches section. The section in which Xi Jinping appeared to officially open the games.
It also contains hints of the; "Fenghuang." The mythical Chinese bird which uses the Sun to travel between dimensions.
We were first introduced to the Fenghuang at the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Held in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea (RoK/South).
Specifically in the section I entitled; "Cowardly Cheese." A section the US referenced heavily itself. During the alleged inauguration of the Biden regime in January 2021.
The Fenghuang as some similarity to the Russian mythological; "Firebird." Used as a metaphor for the pursuit of the unattainable. Particularly in the tale of; "The Firebird and the Grey Wolf."
We were introduced to the Firebird during the 2014 Winter games. Held in Sochi, Russia. Which were attacked by the former Biden regime alongside Ukrainian Nazi Grey Wolves.
The entire firework display had to motif of messages being transmitted from Earth to the heavens, in the form of light. A reminder that China is still the only nation to have a QUESS satellite.
It was the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics which first introduced us to the; "Child-Like Ciphers."
Within the arena the few performers who had taken part in the ceremony stood and watched. Waving at the Olympic Cauldron above them.
17:15 on 2/5/22 (UK date).
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