The PRC isn’t exactly what it used to be, or what it promised to be. The Olympics are right around the corner, and so are paramilitary police, increased scrutiny and an overall sense that things have definitely gotten weird. I’m back in Linyi (more to come on that) and the Olympic spirit/nationalist fervor is as strong as ever. It seems the Olympic torch will be passing through Linyi sometime today.
I’m not going to go see it. Actually, it has been (air-quotes) suggested (air-quotes) that everyone just stay at home. It’s kind of been assumed we’ll have no choice, what with the practice run last week producing city wide barricades. (or so I hear.) Most of Linyi will stay home anyway. We’re all on lock-down. Most have not been chosen to line the streets and cheer the torch on. That’s right. Chosen. You have to be privileged to see the torch in person here. Something tells me the city’s few foreigners are not among them.
Despite the snub, local Linyi people are buying up miniature Chinese flags and Olympics souvenirs by the hundreds, to wear and wave in front of their TVs, I guess. Have these kinds of things always happened on torch runs in other Olympic countries?
