Let the athletes compete!

 双击或划选，即可查看单词的详细解释，并收录生词进生词本

Overseas Chinese come together voluntarily to support the Olympic torch relay. They welcomed the torch on the streets and protested the western media's coverage of the violence in Tibet and the anti-China protests. AP

THE Olympic torch relay, welcomed by overseas Chinese and many locals, was marred by demonstrations in London, Paris and San Francisco. Some Western media and politicians poured fuel onto the fire, calling for an Olympic boycott. Others say that politics should be kept separate from the Games.

"Beijing ultimately has as much right to host them as any other city," wrote Christina Kiser, in The Greyhound, the student newspaper of Loyola College, Maryland.

The majestic theme music of the Olympics gives Christina Kiser goose bumps every time she hears it. However, the atmosphere leading up to this year's Games has been anything but ideal for Kiser.

In Kiser's opinion, the Olympic Games are supposed to be about the art of athletics and sports – speed, agility, gracefulness, not about politics.

Kiser says that the impact of boycotting the Olympics would be at the expense of athletes. If that happened, she would be unable to cheer on her local hero Philip Scholz. He's a Loyola freshman, who just qualified to compete as a swimmer with the US Paralympic Team.

In a commentary essay on CNN.com, L. Ling-chi Wang, a University of California, Berkeley professor emeritus of Asian American and Ethnic Studies, suggests Americans should learn how the Chinese are viewing and preparing for the Olympics in August. Not since the 10-year nightmare of the "cultural revolution (1966-76)" have the Chinese been more dedicated to and collectively mobilized for a national project.

This project aspires to engage the world and to encourage further reform in China. More than 200 million Chinese, for example, are learning English. The torch relay will be greeted by China's provinces before reaching Beijing.

Don't demonize us

China, like many countries, including the US, has problems. It has much to learn from the rest of the world, he said.

"I am opposed to using the Olympics to demonize China and its people," Wang says. Such actions have the effect of desecrating the Olympics and humiliating and insulting the people of China.

Protests and confrontations in London, Paris and San Francisco may even incite Chinese xenophobia and nationalism, resulting in retreat from its increased engagement with the West, Wang said.

Beijing-based event manager Zhao Guofu, 29, has been posting angry messages online recently.

"Even ordinary Chinese who wouldn't usually be interested in politics are now asking, 'Why is China being treated like this?'" said Zhao in an interview with the Singapore-based Strait Times.

Having faith

According to Matthew Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for TIME, educated young Chinese are the biggest beneficiaries of reform and opening-up policies that have brought China more peace and prosperity than at any time in the past thousand years.

Westerners are not going to find allies among the vast majority of Chinese on key issues, said Forney in a commentary in the New York Times.

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge said last Thursday that officials should urge athletes not to lose faith in the Olympics.

"Tell them that they are going to set an example and that the world will be watching them [in Beijing]," he said. "We have 120 days to achieve that and I am sure it is going to be successful."

生词：
boycott 联合抵制
demonize 妖魔化
desecrate 亵渎, 污辱
emeritus 名誉退休的
goose bump 鸡皮疙瘩，比喻很激动
Legislative Yuan 台湾"立法院"
majestic 庄严的
mar 毁坏，损坏
mobilize 动员
Paralympics 残奥会
spoil 损坏
xenophobia 仇外

Bonus
Vocabulary
政治化 politicize
抵制 boycott
藏青会 "Tibetan Youth Congress"
藏独分子 Tibetan separatist
交接仪式 handover ceremony
缩短行程 curtail the relay
护跑手 escort runner
妖魔化中国 demonize China
达赖集团 Dalai Clique
网上签名 online petition





21世纪英文报系报纸订阅>>