REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Saturday, August 9, 2008

THE most famous product in the world – the Olympic Games – opened in breathtaking style, sporting a new label, clearly marked ‘Made in China’.

In a spectacular opening ceremony watched by an estimated television audience of four billion people, China finally ended a century of waiting to host the Games by throwing the biggest welcoming party in its 6000year history.

But while it was an audiovisual feast of dragons, doves and pyrotechnics, any mention of modern China’s founding father, Mao Tse Tung, was left out in an astonishing welcome which avoided overt propaganda.

The ceremony was a clever blend of the old and new China – from the stirring sound of thousands of traditional drums to the inventors of gunpowder showing they still know how to use it.

In between there were humpback whales swimming through seas above the stadium, and dancers so fluid they moved like spilt ink.

And, of course, everybody was kung fu fighting.

To pull it off, Beijing’s new Olympic Stadium – dubbed the Bird’s Nest because of the kilometres of giant strands of steel crisscrossing its exterior – was transformed into a cauldron of colour and sound to mark the start of the 29th Olympiad.

It began with snarling, crackling flashes around the stadium rim that burst into the heart of the arena as if to say: Enter the Chinese dragon.

Below, exactly 2008 warriors began slamming their fists in perfect timing into drums that lit up in response.