 | Policemen inspect a vehicle at a checkpoint in Beijing yesterday. Police have launched inspections using sniffer dogs and metal detectors as part of the security for the Olympic city. |
"GO China" banners will not be allowed into Olympic Games venues in Beijing. Nor will soft drink containers, musical instruments or whistles which all join a list of prohibited items.
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games has decided that banners like "Go China" are against the principles of fairness that are part of the Olympics.
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Li Yong, a BOCOG volunteer department staff, said people with banners would be stopped by the security checks at the entrances of the venues. Spectators should cheer for both Chinese and foreign athletes, Li said.
Last month, 800,000 Chinese volunteers began practising cheer routines for the Games.
They have practised a uniform four-stage cheer with easy-to-learn slogans. The volunteers will stand when national anthems are played and will help remove rubbish at the end of events.
The slang commonly used by Beijing natives, a unique local verbal abuse, is definitely banned.
The rules forbid banners and flags larger than two meters by one meter. Also banned are the flags of non-participating countries, flash photography, drunkenness, nudity, gambling, sit-ins, demonstrations, guns, ammunition, crossbows, daggers and goods thought to be flammable, caustic or radioactive.
Apparently foreigners aren't the only ones who are feeling the brunt of the BOCOG's paranoia--the Chinese Volk, who has been basting in fuzzy feelings of patriotism for the past year or more, cannot even wave banners for their own country at the Olympic Games because it's "against the principles of fairness that are part of the Olympics." Hmm. I'm sure in Sydney or Athens they didn't ban the Aussies or the Greeks from cheering for the home team...but then again, the BOCOG's sense of judgment overall seems pretty dodgy to begin with.
You'd have thought that what with all the recent nationalistic ballyhooing, the Chinese government would have encouraged this kind of 爱国精神. Apparently, a large banner displaying 中国加油！is tantamount to drunkenness or lewd behavior.
Perhaps the slogan of choice for Chinese cheerers should be 中国矛盾.
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