Who KNows the G Damn Words?
Who KNows the G Damn Words?
Who Knows the G Damn Words?
August 11, 2008
Here are my strange/perturbing thoughts/questions for the day, they might be rhetorical, they might not, they come from watching various events in person and on Chinese TV.
What does it mean when people sing their national anthem with (apparently) real gusto?
I have had the chance to hear the Chinese national anthem multiple times this week, in each event space, the crowd sings along “with gusto.”
In a way it would be comforting for me to believe the Chinese crowds and the athletes feel obligated to sing, but I don’t think that’s the case. I also don’t think it’s necessarily a ringing endorsement of their government - in most cases, anthems tend to transcend governments that are in fact - even in the case of China - only temporary tenants. (Even if, in some cases, they have overstayed their welcome.)
I feel British, but I am not a royalist, I appreciate the instrumental role (as a tourist attraction) the royal family has in British life and I have actually been to the Palace to meet the Queen five or six times now. (The Queen either does, or pretends to, remember me; her husband has made the same joke about my height each time and then asked me, with real sincerity, if I play Rugby *sigh*) Nonetheless, every time I go to the Palace, I treat the hosts, staff and guests with respect - and each event with a sense of humour and a liberal pinch of salt!
However, I know when I hear the British national anthem at sporting and State events, I always wonder if it is really meant for me...or is it just meant for certain types of British people. I know it applies to the groups I call “the Blazerati” those older, straight, white, male members of the establishment who seem to hold the purse strings to everything remotely important in Britain (you know them when you see them!) But for me, an old school Benetton add for diversity, and anyone else who doesn’t feel quite British enough, unless they are outside of Britain (or winning a medal), I am never quite sure.
It must be brilliant to listen to your own national anthem and know for one reason or another, that is is absolutely meant for you.
Similarly, when I hear the US national anthem, I do feel politics and patriotism are combined, but only in so much that the Republican party, it’s surrogates, supporters and the religious right seem to have co-opted the US national anthem for their own. Maybe with all that talk of “rockets” and “bombs,” had them frothing at the mouth, thinking it their own perfect theme tune. When I hear the US national anthem, I generally feel like that ‘they’ don’t think it for “people like me” (and I am not talking about the British part) which is a shame, as I’d like it to be.
To my mind, anthem singing should be the ultimate in non-ethnic nationalism at it’s best. I think it should be the kind of activity that makes you want to put your arms around the families next to you and not ever let go.
Perhaps that would be easier, if each of our governments told their respective populations that they were all the same and should aspire to be nothing more? But I am not sure I am willing to pay that price for a good sing-along.
I am sure that nationalism is a bad thing when it only swells inside when surrounded by people not of your nation (I raise my own hand as guilty of this.)
I am sure that nationalism is a bad thing when it rears it’s head as divisive jingoism and propaganda from a small, but powerful subset - often the leadership - of a a country (go on Bush, Hu Jintao, raise your hand.)
I am sure that nationalism is a bad thing when it veers from positive, inclusive, caring, open-to-question patriotism and becomes a smothering, poisoned social shackle, a new, binding, irrefutable dogma.
So, here’s the question. Even in the light of the Chinese governments training of 120,000 volunteers in the art of arena chanting, anthem singing and cheer-leading for the Olympics. Those people to be seeded throughout the Olympic venues to spark the crowd and fill seats should they be empty. What does it mean when the most authentic, warm, seemingly spontaneous national anthem singing I have ever heard from a crowd at a sports event - any event actually - is here in China? A crowd that consists mostly of local Chinese families, visitors from other provinces, local and regional dignitaries and elite Chinese athletes.
What does it mean?
That question was not rhetorical. Get to commenting!