I had not planned on watching the Beijing Olympics (because I never did watch any of the previous Olympics), but after reading a review about the opening ceremony in the local news, I got curious and downloaded the opening ceremony.
We were very impressed (despite the poor quality of the file; I couldn't be bothered to wait to download the HDTV version). What we liked about it:
1) the Chinese national anthem (more stirring than Majulah Singapura), the sharp goose steps, and the way the guard flipped the flag before it was raised (we liked it so much we went back to watch just that part a couple of times!)
2) the 2008 drummers
3) the entire first part of the parade where they introduced the inventions from ancient China; the scroll LED display was particularly ingenious. I really like that segment of the parade; it was very gorgeously done, from the theme to the choreography to the costumes.
The second part of the parade (the schoolchildren reciting the poem, the duet, the parade of the minorities), well, it pales in comparison to the first. Still, everything was very well done.
The sheer mass of people on the field and the amount of work they must have put in was staggering. It was, and I mean it in a good way, chest-thumping on an epic scale.
Ironically, the Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) was held a day after the Beijing Opening Ceremony, but I didn't watch it. I've not watched NDPs in years. Why? For one, I think it's a gross waste of money and resources, which can be put to better use in many other ways. For another, one NDP runs into the next year's... they're not terribly unique. They've become rather boring. People still rave about the previous Olympics opening/closing ceremonies -- what country/city did what, who sang what, etc. Maybe what Singapore should do is to hold a parade once every five years and make it unique. Make it infrequent but make it memorable.
Or, make a supremely grandiose gesture and donate the millions that would have been spent on the NDP entirely to charity. I'm sure everyone, Singaporeans and foreigners alike, would remember such a move for years and years. After all, people here in North America remember that Singapore bans chewing gum and caned some American boy for vandalism (when someone asked me that, I was like, 'WTF, even we, from Singapore, forgot about him years ago'). For once, I'd like to be approached by strangers saying, "oh, you're from that nice and generous country".
We were very impressed (despite the poor quality of the file; I couldn't be bothered to wait to download the HDTV version). What we liked about it:
1) the Chinese national anthem (more stirring than Majulah Singapura), the sharp goose steps, and the way the guard flipped the flag before it was raised (we liked it so much we went back to watch just that part a couple of times!)
2) the 2008 drummers
3) the entire first part of the parade where they introduced the inventions from ancient China; the scroll LED display was particularly ingenious. I really like that segment of the parade; it was very gorgeously done, from the theme to the choreography to the costumes.
The second part of the parade (the schoolchildren reciting the poem, the duet, the parade of the minorities), well, it pales in comparison to the first. Still, everything was very well done.
The sheer mass of people on the field and the amount of work they must have put in was staggering. It was, and I mean it in a good way, chest-thumping on an epic scale.
Ironically, the Singapore National Day Parade (NDP) was held a day after the Beijing Opening Ceremony, but I didn't watch it. I've not watched NDPs in years. Why? For one, I think it's a gross waste of money and resources, which can be put to better use in many other ways. For another, one NDP runs into the next year's... they're not terribly unique. They've become rather boring. People still rave about the previous Olympics opening/closing ceremonies -- what country/city did what, who sang what, etc. Maybe what Singapore should do is to hold a parade once every five years and make it unique. Make it infrequent but make it memorable.
Or, make a supremely grandiose gesture and donate the millions that would have been spent on the NDP entirely to charity. I'm sure everyone, Singaporeans and foreigners alike, would remember such a move for years and years. After all, people here in North America remember that Singapore bans chewing gum and caned some American boy for vandalism (when someone asked me that, I was like, 'WTF, even we, from Singapore, forgot about him years ago'). For once, I'd like to be approached by strangers saying, "oh, you're from that nice and generous country".
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