Putting on a Show.

China really put on a show at the Olympics opening ceremony. Obviously it took a lot of practice and hard work. Apparently it took somewhat more than that according to this article on Sports Illustrated's website. I'm not taking about the fake CGI fireworks or the lip-synching 9-year old girl. I'm talking about what the performers were subjected to. The director of the show, Zhang Yimou, had a couple of particularly telling quotes. First he talks about how they work hard.

North Korea is No. 1 in the world when it comes to uniformity. They are uniform beyond belief! These kind of traditional synchronized movements result in a sense of beauty. We Chinese are able to achieve this as well. Through hard training and strict discipline.

Then he talks about how difficult it was to work on an opera in the West.

In one week, we could only work four and a half days, we had to have coffee breaks twice a day, couldn't go into overtime and just a little discomfort was not allowed because of human rights ... You could not criticize them either. They all belong to some organizations ... they have all kind of institutions, unions. We do not have that. We can work very hard, can withstand lots of bitterness. We can achieve in one week what they can achieve in two months.

The western opera company could not handle a "little discomfort." By "little discomfort" does he means the heat exhaustion and injuries that were suffered for the Olympic performance? Does he mean they actually wanted food once in a while? What about the "lots of bitterness?" Perhaps it refers to one rehearsal that was 51 hours long with almost no breaks. Perhaps it was the adult diapers that printing press performers had to wear. Perhaps it refers to the practical imprisonment of the performers for three months at a military base. Yep just get rid of those pesky unions and silly human rights and you can put on a real show. Like they do in North Korea. It's so good to know that China aspires to such heights.

Ironic how much human right abuse it took to get us to enjoy the show and overlook China's other human rights abuses. Yep, China really put on a show.