The opening ceremony shows quite a few typical characteristics of China, except for the large population, the overuse of kids is obviously one of them.
In China, kids are always said to represent the hope of China. In the opening ceremony, the audience saw so many hopes of China as well as the long rich history, but little modern civilization. This can be explained in this way: since there is not much to show about modern culture, we can only rely on the future.
Except for hopes, kids, especially girls also represent weakness and can contribute to soften the harsh criticism from the other countries. China has got so many criticisms, so no wonder so many kids were used.
But this will impress the world that kids enjoy a high status in China, especially when people read some reports about how Chinese parent spoil the kids in modern days. However to be spoiled doesn’t mean to be respected. Obviously the kids at the opening ceremony would surely be spoiled by Chinese one-voice media and people who swarm to them with showers of flashy words, but did they get enough respect?
Now, everybody knows the fake stories of the opening ceremony. That girl in red actually used another girl’s voice, because the red girl’s voice is not as good as the voice girl, and the voice girl’s face is not as pretty as the red girl, an official said it is for the country’s interest. Wow, what will the two girls think of themselves when they know their voice and face can hurt the country’s interest?
The little boy, who went in the Stadium with Chinese athletes team is from Sichuan Province and renowned as a little hero in fighting against the earthquake. What is the purpose to use this guy? To comfort the parents whose children are all buried in the ruins of the schools with bad construction quality? To show China did a really good job in securing people hit by earthquake with this boy’s innocent happy face?
The kids definitely play a doll role in the opening ceremony. It also reflects the kids’ true situation in China’s real life. Kids are always taught to follow all the words said by teachers and parents, no arguments are allowed. If a kid follows well, he will be titled as a “good” kid. The problem is that almost all the teachers and parents follow the same routine to control kids, “you have to spend all your time in studying textbooks”, “don’t talk in classes,” “don’t run around”, “sit here and keep silent”. That is why you can see the kids at the opening ceremony share the same Chinese-style fake stressed smile. They were taught to smile in the same way, and to be fake is the lesson you started to learn in China from the first day you were born.
In this way, kids can only serve as dolls. Getting high marks in the exams will lead them to be set as model dolls. And the worst thing is that as long as a kid is labeled as a good kid, he should ACT as a good kid even at the price of killing his own natures. Giving birth to children, for most couples even now, is to show they are healthy enough to have children. After the children were born, the parent just lay a lot of pressures on the children to achieve some goals they, as a couple of losers, cannot achieve.
Chinese kids normally cannot escape being dolls for these two functions. On annual Children’s Day, June 1, there will be some TV programs holding the banner of “making the happiest festival for children”. Normally, they will arrange some children dance the same dance style of more than 10 years ago, and invite some children from poor areas to show the society’s charity on these kids. The children’s words are all the same “we are so happy that we got so many warmth from our government and the Party”. After being trained in this way for a long time, they even don’t know what their real voice should be. People even don’t care about the voice. Kids are just kids. You want to express yourself? Only after you grow up. But when they grow up, they already forget or give up their original voice and treat their kids the same way as their parent do on them.
Even the beggars know how to use kids. They always rent some kids to beg together for collecting more money. The picture above is a woman selling small flags at the gate of Bird’s Nest with a kid whose face was pasted a red flag to attract more consumers.
So if you are naïve to think Chinese kids are really as happy as they pretend to show in the opening ceremony, you are absolutely wrong. They might get enough food and clothes, but no proper respect.
