That being said I can no longer keep my mouth (or my fingers) quiet on the subject of the Olympics. When I called it Beijing madness I wasn't kidding. The Olympics are everywhere. In every store, in every shop, on every street corner I find myself staring at some Olympic trinket or another. There are cups and shirts and hats and dolls and posters and everything imaginable all printed with Olympic logos and the ever cute mascots.
When I turn on the news there is almost always some new story about the Olympics. The torch is traveling to a new city, or they have just completed a new building or there is one of the organizers to interview. The China Daily newspaper has a daily countdown to just how many days we have left to wait.
This isn't just in Beijing or Shanghai (where some of the events will take place) but everywhere I have traveled over the country. From the big cities to the small villages, they all seem to have Olympic fever. I suppose that's a testimony to just how well the country mans its mass media machine. It can pump out new stories about the games ad infinitum and plaster the people's brains with Olympic thoughts. You could infer other things about that machine, and its ability to guide the people's thoughts, but once again I'll remain mute on the subject.
I remember when the games came to Atlanta and Salt Lake City and I don't remember anything like this. When the games finally came to those cities the networks covered it, as did the sports pages. People in the office talked about them, and it seemed like every company making something was a sponsor, but there was nothing like the furor that I have seen here.
On a recent trip to Hong Kong my wife and I learned that the torch would be in the city while we were there. We thought about going to see it, but the papers weren't printing where it would be and when (or at least not in English) and after thinking about the huge crowds it would draw we decided to not even try.
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