China, an old country with splendid history of five hundred years, is to hold its first Olympic Games ever in Beijing this year. As a citizen of this country, undoubtedly, I take it as a great pride to have got the chance to show the world a new appearance of the modern country. As a saying goes, the Olympic Games is an opportunity as well as a challenge for every Chinese. We are gonna show the marvelous achievement that we Chinese have reached and enjoyed. The media everyday is yelling out that we are ready, Beijing. I sincerely wonder whether we are really ready for it.

Someone once said it’s easy to construct modern skyscrapers while it’s another case to build up a nation’s characteristic. A Chinese writer used to publish a book entitled “Ugly Chinese” (I’m not sure of the English title of it.) in which he criticized many bad habits and corrupt customs of Chinese people. No human being is flawless, thus, we have to admit our own weakness in our characteristics, especially in this particular period of upcoming Olympic Games, in front of mass of foreigners.

The night before last night, I saw a CCTV Programme called “Us”, which was designed expressly for the service of Beijing Olympic Games’ preparation. In that edition of the programme, the host invited one of the most prestigious artist and scholar as well as the designer of the Beijing Olympic mascot Fuwa, Han Meilin. I was deeply impressed by the scholar’s humor and profound affection for this country. He loved this country so much as to devote his lifetime to the study of ancient Chinese characters. In the programme, he was called upon to make a speech and talks on how he did come up with the idea of creating the mascot Fuwa and how Chinese citizens are supposed to behave in the Beijing Olympic Games. All the spectators seemed touched and impressed. At the end of the programme, Mr. Han gave his own books and some other stuff to all the audiences as presents and guaranteed them to sign his signature on presents. What’s embarrassing occurred. These some hundred audiences flocked to Mr. Han for fear that they could not get the gifts. CCTV staffs tried to make them queue in a line but failed even after 5 minutes’ effort. Some audiences even got more than one souvenir which make others get none. After they got the presents, the hostess felt obliged to draw a conclusion according to their behavior then. It was really a lesson which shocked my soul. Saying is one thing, while doing is another thing.
Beijing Olympic Games will be a mile stone, I hope, from which on, we are gonna have a significant betterment in our Chinese characteristics and along with it healthy economic development would be an inevitable tendency.
Go, China!

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