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Why the Chinese Need Olympic Glory

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 4, 2008 4:30 PM CDT

(Newser) – Those shocked by China’s bristly response to Olympic protests and criticisms would do well to remember some history, Orville Schell writes for the New York Review of Books. After what the Chinese call a "century of humiliation" at the hands of the West and Japan, the nation has developed an institutionalized paranoia and sense of injury that even a booming economy hasn't fixed. That's where the Olympics come in.

"In one grand, symbolic stroke, the Olympic aura promised to help cleanse China's messy historical slate, overthrow its legacy of victimization and humiliation, and allow the country to spring forth on the world stage reborn as the great nation it once had been" Schell writes. That's why the Chinese are so thin-skinned about criticism, and prone to see protesters as traitors attempting to steal their long-overdue glory. Don't expect that to change until they fully believe that they "already are, in fact, successful and powerful, and that the past is, in fact, the past."

[Images (7)]

[Quotes (2)]

A Chinese student with a flag beats anti-Olympic protesters during a rally against the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay in Seoul, South Korea. (AP Photo)

A Pro-Tibet protestor escapes a police officer during the Olympic Torch relay Monday, April 7, 2008 in Paris. (AP Photo)

A group of men march in hazy weather conditions outside the National stadium "Birds Nest" at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in Beijing, Monday, Aug. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

In this July 23, 2008 file photo, Chinese paramilitary police march during their oath taking ceremony to ensure safety during the Beijing Olympics in front of the National Stadium, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

Chinese workers walk out from the National Olympic Stadium in Beijing, China, Monday, July 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Tibetan exiles hold placards in Nepal. (AP Photo)

Nationalist protesters in China. (AP Photo)

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When it comes to accepting outside criticisms, Chinese leaders undeniably are thin-skinned. Their memories of historical weakness and humiliation still burn with intensity. - Orville Schell

Few Chinese have yet allowed themselves to be psychologically convinced by China's success, to embrace a new national belief in China's establishment as a leading nation.

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