National Image Management Begins at Home: Imagining the New Olympic Citizen

Abstract

The Chinese government seized on the 2008 Olympic Games as an opportunity to present a new and vibrant China to both its citizenry and the world. This chapter examines how China used the Games as a moment to stress the “civilizational” value of Chinese culture to its people and, in tandem, to promote what are deemed good civilized manners among its citizenry. It was part and parcel of the government’s effort to showcase a better image of China. As Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan remarked, “We have to have a good Olympics, otherwise not only will our generation lose face, but also our ancestors.”1 In this chapter, we analyze the Chinese government’ s visual promotional materials (e.g., posters) and Olympic manuals for volunteers and taxi drivers to map out the different discourses on the civilized behavior expected of its people during the Games.