https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0808-1170
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ABSTRACT
Drawing on promotional materials in 2007–2008 and in 2021–2022, this article examines both Olympics to explore how the state has evolved in its governmental rationalities, and the related cultural and political implications. The 2022 Winter Games, despite its comparatively low profile and challenges posed by Covid-19, provided the Chinese state with a key moment to advance its confidence doctrine. Three discourses were mobilised pertaining to, first, the CCP’s superb leadership and problem-solving skills; second, China’s mega-infrastructure; and, third, created + made in China. The 2022 Olympics thus mobilised three confidence-driven discourses: leadership confidence, techno-scientific confidence, and creative confidence. In doing so, the 2022 Olympics envisioned, narrated, and materialised the popular discursive signifiers – technology, green and sustainability, and the future – the authorities already actively promoted in its political initiatives and policies. This contributed to the inward-oriented beliefs of self-reliance and self-improvement. Where we witnessed in 2008 a sense of curiosity and openness, within China and the world at large, we now face the complexities, dangers, and cultural essentialism, if not narcissism, of a confident China.
Acknowledgements
Both authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.
Special terms
Notes
1 Zhang’s response here was very much rehearsing (reading) CCP’s recent political ideas: “community of common destiny for mankind” and cultural confidence.
2 It initially only has “three confidences” (sange zixin) that urge the population to have confidence in “path, political system and guiding theories” of CCP. “Cultural confidence” and “historical confidence” were added to “the Three Confidences” in 2016 and 2021 respectively. https://www.12371.cn/special/zggcdzc/zggcdzcqw/ (accessed on 1 June 2022).
3 These cover both official and commercial media materials, including 10 traditional and new social media channels, from the People’s Daily, Xinhua, Global times, Beijing Daily, CCTV, to Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, WeChat and Zhihu.
4 Focusing on sport, Brownell (Citation2023) believed that China has become more integrated into the world order, “more open, and less xenophobic” (25). Taking a different focus on the population management and China’s geopolitical positioning, our analysis unveils a different argument from Brownell.
5 This slogan replaced the original slogan “Joyful Rendezvous Upon Pure Ice and Snow” (chunjie de bingxue, jiqing de yuehui), which was lengthy and less captivating. The contrast in slogan promotion between 2008 and 2022 is revealing.
6 Chua (Citation2015) pinpointed that Asian countries and cities have been referencing with their neighbours, and China in particular with Singapore, in his words, “China would like to replicate, if possible, despite the difference in scale, Singapore’s success in captiatlist development while maintaining a non-corrupt, elected, single-party dominant state power with a high degree of electoral popularity, and hence legitimacy to govern” (74).
7 “The Chinese Dream” (zhongguo meng) was officially promoted by Xi Jinping (general secretary of the Communist Party of China) in 2012. Tracing the population management strategies since the Olympics, it is not hard to observe that the word “dream” has ascended to its socio-cultural and political significance through its hugely popular use in the Olympics promotions (e.g. slogans like “One World, One Dream” “tongyi shijie tongyi mengxiang,” posters, and media productions like Dream Weaver (zhu meng, 2008). Dream Weaver, directed by Gu Jun, was the official Olympic documentary, supported by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (hereafter BOCOG).
8 It is important to note that in general, the summer Olympics always attract more attention worldwide when compared to the Winter Olympics.
9 #Beijing2022 Winter Olympic venues complete construction (29 October 2021). People’s Daily, China. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmQX_3tlbWo&list=PLryvsQ9JUl__OC1x4srHQcw6NiPK3NOb1&index=5.
10 The Japanese government was severely criticised for not cancelling the 2020 Games. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57911122.
11 Zheng, Y. (16 January 2022). Experts dismiss criticisms of artificial snow for Beijing 2022. CGTN. Retrieved from https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-16/Experts-dismiss-criticisms-of-artificial-snow-for-Beijing-2022-16S1qD785HO/index.html.
12 From Beijing to Beijing: Second Episode Kind-hearted Chinese Medical Teams (2022). Retrieved from https://tv.cctv.com/2022/01/16/VIDEd2ZVWcDqSRLQTLebRpR8220116.shtml?spm=C55924871139.PT8hUEEDkoTi.0.0.
13 High Speed Railway for 2022 Winter Olympics in construction (18 April 2018). CGTN. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upfuhOLqY4c&list=PLryvsQ9JUl__OC1x4srHQcw6NiPK3NOb1&index=6.
14 Winter Olympics Approaching: Interviews with Director Zhang Yimou (2022). In CCTV-13. Retrieved from https://tv.cctv.com/2022/01/21/VIDEb9Jj04JVEHeHA7l0EkkH220121.shtml.
15 Winter Olympics Landscape: Zhangjiakou (2022). CCTV. Retrieved from https://2022.cctv.com/2022/01/18/VIDENHYopjgqTumXVuoUmVrN220118.shtml?spm=C67245673465.P7DLnZmkcxGg.0.0.
16 In 2008, the official materials would selectively “forget” foreign architects when mentioning the iconic architectural buildings (Chong Citation2017, 148).
17 Chen, Xi. (16 February 22). "Snow Ruyi'” designer reveals how Olympic venue showcases beauty of Chinese culture. Global Times. Retrieved from https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252388.shtml#:∼:text=%22We%20established%20the%20image%20of,Chinese%20culture%2C%22%20Zhang%20said.
18 Winter Olympics Landscape: Yanqing District (2022). CCTV. Retrieved from https://sports.cctv.com/2022/01/16/VIDEX49CQgo3tOiPukZGDujc220116.shtml?spm=C73465.PPhwmWKcKcH2.EKT5Lpy95bel.4.
19 Winter Olympics Landscape: Zhangjiakou (2022). Retrieved from https://2022.cctv.com/2022/01/18/VIDENHYopjgqTumXVuoUmVrN220118.shtml?spm=C67245673465.P7DLnZmkcxGg.0.0.
20 Watch it again: Looking ahead to Beijing Winter Olympics (2022). Retrieved 24 February 2022 from China Daily website: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202112/24/WS61c550e8a310cdd39bc7d49d.html.
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Notes on contributors
Gladys Pak Lei Chong
Gladys Pak Lei Chong is Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the author of Chinese Subjectivities and the Beijing Olympics (2017), co-editor of Trans-Asia as Method: Theory and Practices (2020) and Critiquing Communication Innovation (2022). Some of her journal articles have appeared in Global Media and China, Visual Studies, Science, Technology and Society, The Information Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, China Information, International Journal of the History of Sport, and Journal of Current Chinese Affairs. Her research on youth aspirations, and technology, security, and risk are funded by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council.
Jeroen de Kloet
Jeroen de Kloet is Professor of Globalisation Studies at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Publications include a book with Anthony Fung Youth Cultures in China (Polity 2017), and the edited volumes Boredom, Shanzhai, and Digitization in the Time of Creative China (with Yiu Fai Chow and Lena Scheen, Amsterdam UP 2019) and Trans-Asia as Method: Theory and Practices (with Yiu Fai Chow and Gladys Pak Lei Chong, Rowman and Littlefield, 2019). His new book is It's My Party – Tatming Pair and the Postcolonial Politics of Popular Music in Hong Kong (with Yiu Fai Chow and Leonie Schmidt, Palgrave, 2024).