Beijing Olympics: The Closing Ceremony |History: The Roadmap to the Future--Asia

Monday, August 25, 2008

Beijing Olympics: The Closing Ceremony

Not bad. That describes the Closing Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

As with the starting ceremony, this one made liberal use of many people working either together or in unison. The light-studded little green men made another appearance.

Although there were glimmers of it in the starting ceremony--notably in the dresses of the guides in the Parade of Nations (the people who carried the signs with the countries' names on them)--the closing ceremony drew a lot from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, or as NBC calls it, Torino. The uniforms of the drummers, along with their 'speedy' looking bicycle helmets evoked those previous Olympics, as did the almost-nudists, with both having a similitude to the Italians' dancing 'skinless man.'

The London performance part (as the British capital is set to be the site of the 2012 Olympics) was practically a cultural death scream. A sign of Britain and Europe falling more and more into irrelevance. Still, Beckham almost knocking off the head of a Japanese athlete with a kicked soccer ball, which also flustered Chinese volunteers who had difficulty catching the sporty projectile, was interesting, and offset Leona Lewis and some old fart's screeched-out 'song.'

The closing ceremony was not as great as the starting ceremony, but--as stated--the Chinese ending of their Olympics was not bad.