In The End, We're Not That Different

This morning before work and after my walk with the dogs, I was sitting down with my cup of coffee to take in some of The Today Show as I do every morning. The crew is broadcasting from Beijing during the Olympics, and most of what they have been discussing in the morning (evening for them) has been on the Olympics, the athletes, and the country and people of China.

The story I caught in full this morning was on the Chinese "award girls" that have been in training for weeks. These girls are from the Beijing Foreign Affairs School, a state-run college who's mission is to produce camera-friendly girls for various award ceremonies, including the Olympics.

If you've been watching the Olympics, you've probably seen these girls during the medal ceremonies. They are wearing white dresses and are carefully handling the medals as they bestow them upon the necks of the winning athletes. They are all beautiful, and all the same, and all uniform in dress and posture. And this is by no accident.

The girls are all between 5'6" and 5'8", weighing between 110 and 120 pounds. They have been through extensive training on how to walk, talk, stand, greet visitors, and handle the medals. They have learned basic English, French and Spanish. And they have been groomed by the Chinese government for this very moment, in the same way that the little girl in the red dress was chosen to sing at the Opening Ceremonies, when the voice that we all heard was not her own. These women and girls were chosen for their beauty, grace, and pleasant look. The Olympics are a window into the world of China, and China wanted to put their best face forward, literally.

As I sat listening to The Today Show story about these woman, it struck me how unapologetic the Chinese government is about their image. They have a certain agenda in mind and a certain image they want the world to have of their country, and they are unapologetic about it. It's like the Chinese government has said, "Sure, we admit that little girl was lip sinking on Friday, but the other girl didn't have the look we needed. Let's move on. Yes, our award girls all look the same and are beautiful and we have trained them to be that way. So what? It's our country and this is what we want to do."

At first I thought to myself, "How backwards is this country? How prosaic? To actually go out of your way to choose people based on looks and manner; to be so determined that this is the image they are going to give the world, regardless of what reporter broke the lip sinking story or how many cameras followed the training of the award girls." I began thinking about our country, and what "award girls" we would choose should the Olympics ever come back to the States. Surely we wouldn't take the same course as China in selecting the "award girls."

Or would we?

It suddenly dawned on me - we would, we would absolutely do the exact same thing as China, but only in the extreme opposite. We would choose people not because they looked the same, but because they all looked different. We would not just have girls, but boys as well. We would choose people of different races, different religions, different ages, heights, weights, perhaps even sexual orientations. Our entire focus would be to make sure that the "award girls" for America would look anything but "American". After all, that seems to be quite the focus of our country these days - we pride ourselves on diversity, on tolerance, and on acceptance. In fact, to look and act traditionally "American" is almost seen as a bad thing in our society. Are you white? Are you male? Are you Christian? Are you a Republican? Forget it - you are the America of old, for today's American is a person of color, a person of a different religion, a person who does not look like you or your neighbor. And this is the exact image our country would want to give to the rest of the world - the idea that America is a progressive and sophisticated society, a global citizen of the world that is so far above choosing people that look the same. And what I fear would be the worst part would be our pride. We would be so proud of our diversity, on the fact that we are so progressive, that it would come across as so smug, so annoyingly pompous. It's no wonder why some countries don't like us so much. Are we just that proud to tick off other countries? I fear the answer may be yes...

But, in this instance, aren't we just the same as China? Isn't the sentiment, the purpose behind the our selection of American "award girls" just the same? It is. China has chosen women with the specific purpose of showing uniformity and tradition. And we would chose people with the specific purpose of showing diversity and openness. And when you really think about it, we're not that much different from China in this way. America has an image to protect, just as China does. We just have a different images that we want to give off. And this image is not one that is likely to disappear for either country anytime soon.