We were in Beijing at the time when the Bird´s Nest, so spectacularly shown during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, was being completed. The following poem expresses the feelings of the time.
Torch the Nest Egg[i]
The moated egg floated in a green maze of shrubs.
The bird's nest spread across the land, like an ancient tumulus,
stripped to the skeletons of those who ran and jumped
and strove for excellence centuries ago;
as the water cube waited to reveal its depths
and the built torch waited for the touch
that would complete its lights.
But a countryman still raised his head
to gaze out, off a pedestrian footbridge,
at the bumper to bumper cars, motionless,
seemingly painted on the eight-lane highway;
a single labourer tipped building waste
from a simple wheelbarrow;
a single worker swung in a solitary gondola
racing at speed up the wall of the athletes' village;
and a group of three takes a rest on the sloping glass
of another emerging building.
Not only the world's athletes are competing here;
a country's people has sacrificed and hoped;
a country's workers have experienced weariness and pain;
a country's leaders have taken thought.
Few athletes will win gold. For most
the praise received will be for taking part.
A censorious world may award few perfect scores.
But let us hope the Chinese people will be praised
for the will they show to practice for perfection.
Whichever of us is perfect will not cast a stone of blame
for this.
16, 17, 18 April 2008.
Ó Gillian Bickley 2008
Gillian Bickley's three previous poetry collections are available in several Hong Kong bookstores, as well as online. More information at: www.geocities.com/proversehk
[i] Stunning new buildings erected for, or to coincide with the Beijing Olympics have contrastingly homely nicknames. The new National Theatre for the Performing Arts in Beijing is "The egg". The National Aquatics Centre is "The water cube". And the National Stadium is "the bird's nest". The Beijing National Stadium was opened to the press for the first time on Wednesday 16 April (a mere couple of months behind schedule) and hosted its first event, a "Good Luck Beijing" walk, on Friday 18 April. The new National Theatre for the Performing Arts opened in December 2007, three or so years plus behind schedule, after more than 40 years in the planning. While we were in Beijing recently (11-17 April), a North Korean opera troupe was performing a show reportedly featuring oppressive landlords and sturdy peasants. The National Aquatics Centre, begun on the same day as the Bird's Nest, was completed earlier; handed over for use on 28 January 2008.
On 16 April, when we visited them, the bird's nest was drawing a constantly renewing crowd of interested Chinese and some foreigners. The Water Cube, a short distance away as the crow flies, was also a popular draw. A group of senior citizens crowded at the flimsy barrier a couple of hundred yards from the building, pointing and looking over at it, eagerly.
Very close is another Olympic building also nearing completion, the tall tower building, shaped like a flaming Olympic torch.
The cost of the Bird's Nest was tremendous: 3.5 billion yuan ($500.7 million). The human cost was great too. 4,707 residents were relocated from 2,043 households in the surrounding area. (Thomson Reuters 18 April 2008, "FACTBOX - Five Facts about Beijing's Bird's Nest")
Norman Foster (Lord Foster) designed the new Beijing Airport, the biggest in the world which opened 29 January 2008. Travellers from Hong Kong will find familiar elements.
