Feng Jicai  
Vice President of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles

What will China¡¯s successful Olympic bid brings to the nation¡¯s culture? This is a question that is attracting growing attention in the Chinese cultural community.

As we all know, the Olympic Games today is the largest gala occasion in the world. When the games come to Beijing in 2008, hundred and thousands of foreigners will visit us, walking through alleys of this ancient city. In addition, billions of people around the globe will watch us on television. From a cultural perspective, there is no greater opportunity than the Olympic Games for China to showcase its culture to the rest of the world.

To some Chinese young people, the image and concept of the Chinese culture are all blurred. The dragons, the Chinese character ¡°happiness¡± and the red lanterns are absolutely no match for hamburgers and Hollywood stars when it comes to their influence. Those who live in a vulnerable culture for a long time tend to look down on themselves, which deeply shakes their confidence. This is a worrisome problem.

The other half of our cultural problem is that China is not truly understood by the outside world. The Western understanding of Chinese culture is much narrower and shallower than our understanding of Western culture. In particular, those who have never been to China derived their impression of the country partly from the superficial pop culture in Chinatowns, and partly from movies depicting old China. They are in no position to appreciate the richness and exquisiteness of the Chinese culture, only having a mystical feeling about it.

So what can we do to change these inaccurate impressions and expose the world to genuine and splendid Chinese culture?

Now comes the chance. The world stage has been moved to China and the initiative has been passed on to us, a privilege only the host country of the Olympic Games can have. Then, what are we going to show the world?What after all is the image of the Chinese culture? Where are its charms? What elements does it comprise? How to showcase them? Which ones of the numerous symbols can most effectively demonstrate the uniqueness of the Chinese culture? Which cultural symbols can represent the richness and exquisiteness of the Chinese culture? Furthermore, what spirit can be distilled from our long history?

Although the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games will be the most vivid and most dazzling demonstration of the image of a national culture, the deepest memory for the rest of the world must come from Beijingers whom foreigners will personally contact. While the cultural image through performances can give foreigners certain visual impressions, only the collective image of the Chinese and Beijingers can go deep into the hearts of the people from around the world. For this reason, all Beijingers have an intangible mission to portray the image of the Chinese culture.

The notion of ¡°cultural Olympics¡± is extremely intelligent. This is because the notions of ¡°economic Olympics¡± and ¡°green Olympics¡± mean more or less the same to any host country. But the notion of ¡°cultural Olympics¡±is designed to unequivocally highlight the uniqueness of the host country. Cultural Olympics means a civilized Olympics. The Olympics has a brilliant history and civilization. All the twenty preceding host countries have jointly created them by combining their unique cultures with the Olympic spirit. This time, it is up to Beijing to add its own unique and splendid culture to the Olympics.

Our culture has long been in a vulnerable position. Can we reverse this situation this time by taking advantage of the world attention focusing on us? Let the world know a genuine, lifelike and fascinating Chinese culture, and at the same time let this culture become a cohesive force of our nation.