Q&A
Kristin Stapleton
Kristin Stapleton is associate professor of history and director of the Asian Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Olympics for China: Hit or miss?
I can’t address the economic realities of the Olympic Games vis-å-vis the Chinese economy, but in general, I would say that domestically, they have been a boost for the Communist Party. It was an incredibly expensive undertaking and that has generated grumbling among the Chinese about misplaced priorities, but the quality of the extravaganza has the Chinese thinking China is really something. This is important to the Communist Party, which is preoccupied with containing political unrest.
What principal impression of China has the world taken from the Beijing Olympics?
I think people abroad will continue to be impressed that the vast overall spectacle of the Olympics was managed so well.
What long-term impact will the games have on China?
Given the depth of China’s ancient past, the Olympics can’t be considered a major event in Chinese history. I am struck, however, by the resiliency of China’s ruling regime. For good or ill, it successfully employed many tools, from censorship to playing on feelings of national pride, to maintain its own stability in very challenging circumstances marked by economic uncertainty and mass protest.
How can Americans begin to grasp the infinite complexities and “otherness” of contemporary China?
There are many, many routes, including language and cultural study and travel. One place to start is by reading books like “River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze” by New Yorker correspondent Peter Hessler, who also wrote “Oracle Bones: A Journey between China’s Past and Present.” Another suggestion is “Rightful Resistance in Rural China,” co-written by Kevin J. O’Brien, a political scientist at UC-Berkeley, and Lianjiang Li, a member of the faculty of social science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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