The 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony may come to mark an important moment in world history. It was admittedly quite the spectacle, with 2,008 drummers beating traditional Chinese fou drums, coordinated to absolute perfection. President George W. Bush described the event as “spectacular and successful,” while British Prime Minister Tony Blair had this to say: “The spectacular to end all spectaculars and probably can never be bettered.” Naive 10-year-old me thought it was the coolest thing ever.
But the ceremony wasn’t just about entertaining the global masses while celebrating the universally beloved Olympics: it was calculated political propaganda. China was sending a strong message to the West: Behold our civilization, the civilization that will dominate the world. It was as if they were announcing, The 21st century belongs to us. At the time, the West was perhaps too mesmerized by “the grandest spectacle of the new millennium” to see the real writing on the wall. Things were about to change a lot, and not necessarily for the better.