Olympics = Giant Commercial?

Harmonious 3-Wheel Double Mint Gum!
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Since I moved to Beijing, pretty much everyone has asked me about the Olympics. The 2008 Olympics has been one of the most hyped events of the century. The Chinese government, of course, has fueled the hype as much as possible, seeing the Olympics as a golden PR opportunity to show the world that China is no longer a Backwards Country. That China is now a Modern Country. A Developed Country.

[More on this later, but what has helped me to understand contemporary China immensely is to understand how demoralizing the past 150 years or so were, until Deng Xiaoping opened up China to market reforms in 1978. It's interesting to note that Chinese people see their culture and heritage through the lens of its 5000+ year history; America just reached its 200th birthday not too long ago.]

Of course what do "modern" and "developed" mean? Globalism has apparently worked its magic quite nicely and imbued the terms "modern" and "developed" in China with an overt materialistic bent.

Now that the Olympics have arrived, and this aforementioned opportunity to show the world that China is a Modern and Developed Country, I can't help but notice how big of a business this whole shebang is.

The multinational corporations are dropping some serious, serious duckets...for parties and open bars which I am not entirely mad at.

The other day I was DJing at this media event put together by Puma and the Jamaican Embassy.

Press interviewing some of the Jamaican Olympic athletes (below). If I'm not mistaken, Usain Bolt the recent 100M gold medalist and WR holder, was the guy fielding the questions.



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Afterwards, there was a "fashion show" where Chinese dancers decked out in Puma gear danced to reggaeton and the Jamaican athletes decked out in Puma gear came out with their faces painted in Chinese opera mask style. Where the East meets the West (Indies)!





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Afterwards the head of Puma Asia Pacific and the Jamaican ambassador had nice words for the crowd. (Buy Puma!). There was also a live video feed from Jamaica so that the Jamaican president could wish the Olympic athletes good luck.



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Another night I went to help my friend, DJ Wordy (the dude in the DJ booth in upper lefthand corner), to set up for an Adidas party, the event for which they flew out Neil Armstrong, Jay-Z's Tour DJ, who, uh, also DJed at my old bar in NY back in the day. Represent!





Since Adidas is an Olympic sponsor, this event--which I did not attend (more on that later)--was supposed to have all these high-ranking government officials and Chinese celebrities like Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, etc.



Adidas had rented out this huge space. Above, Wordy setting up the other DJ booth. That's right, a double DJ booth event.
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Last Saturday, we went to the MTV-Budweiser party, which featured...a Budweiser open bar.



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Budweiser had rented out (constructed?) this huge warehouse space with 2 huge rooms and an outdoor space for "pool parties."





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A half empty (half full?) pool.



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And dancers.



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Next to the MTV-Budweiser party warehouse is the Holland House. Here, Heineken rented out the the Beijing Agricultural Museum. Heineken > MTV-Budweiser



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The hall entrance.





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Heineken, in keeping with the Olympic spirit, set up a museum highlighting past Dutch Olympic triumphs.



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Further inside, the festivities, which of course included cold Heineken beers in plastic cups. Unfortunately, Heineken was charging 30 RMB for beers...and making you buy beer credit cards.



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Rumors swirled that DJ Tiesto was DJing. (Holland represent).



This was on a Wednesday night and the Holland House was rocking. Apparently all the Dutch people were celebrating a Dutch judo athlete's bronze medal earlier that day, which led my friend, Eveline, to remark that smaller non-Olympic powerhouse countries rock because they're not afraid to go buck when they win a medal, any medal.
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Heineken = see China is a Modern and Developed Country!
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The outdoor patio space of the Holland House.







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"Acting like life is a big commercial..."