Olympic Torch Song

“WE-WEL-COME-YOU-TO-BEIJING.”

There is a group of Chinese occupying some high ground on Justin Herman Plaza, chanting and waving Chinese, American and Olympic flags and waving placards with the little Hello Kitty Olympic icons.

We’ve come to the San Francisco Embarcadero to watch the Olympic Torch Relay. Also coincidentally to see the carnival going on in front of the Ferry Building. The place is an ocean of flags and signs and people carrying them. Some people are just their own sign. This is a zone of conflict, and all the conflicting factions are mixing together to shout it out. But it’s all about raised voices, no threatening gestures or physical contact that I can see. It’s San Francisco street theater and all the actors are out in force.

People have gathered together in affinity groups and tribes. They wear unifying T-Shirts and matching hats, much like a Japanese tour group. The pro-Tibet people are draped in Tibetan flags and shirts calling for a Free Tibet. They have handed out signs that say “Another ____ for a Free Tibet,” allowing impromptu supporters to fill in the blank to identify themselves with some other sub-group. Thus “Another Jew/African American/Brother/Veteran/American/Blank for a Free Tibet” is marching through the plaza and up and down the Embarcadero. Tibet for the Tibetans!

The Chinese Americans, the principal and most vocal supporters of the Chinese government, are carrying bouquets of Chinese, US and Olympic flags. There are a lot of older Chinese, and I think how odd it is to see them waving the Communist flag like this. Not so many years ago this was a Kuomintang town, and waving the Communist flag would have been like waving a red flag – oops, I mean it would have invited reprisal. Clearly there is a national pride at work here that goes far deeper than politics.

There is a subgroup of people in green T-shirts and hats that are protesting China’s involvement with Sudan and Darfur. End the Genocide! Shame on China! Another group of South Vietnamese wave the old flag and carry commercially lettered signs protesting the take over of the Sparacel Islands by the Chinese government (I think these are uninhabited except for oil explorers). Other groups include Uyghurs (a muslim minority in what used to be Eastern Turkestan until the Chinese invaded in 1949, about the same time they took over Tibet), animal rights demonstrators concerned about the plight of dogs and cats in China, a group from Rockridge (Oakland) protesting MSG, and a homeless guy selling the Street Sheet and shouting “what about the plight of the homeless right here in the US.” Right. Free Chinese food! For everybody!

This being SF, there is the Dada group, including a guy carrying a sign saying “I can’t afford an actual sign” a skater dude waving his board like a placard, and a group of women dressed in pink Lady Liberty outfits. There are also a lot of people who don’t have a side, who just want to see the Torch and who like to think the Olympics are supposed to transcend politics. I’m just here for the show.

People are passionate about their causes and they engage in impromptu debates. Clusters form around a couple of people in passionate discussion about the historical position of Tibet within China. A Chinese guy tries to frame the debate about whether or not Tibet is really part of China by suggesting that California was originally part of Mexico, and why don't we give it back. I overhear this enough to think that there were some talking points worked up ahead of time.

“Shame on China!” yells one faction. “That just means you don’t like Chinese people!” yells a Chinese woman wearing a full face black plastic sun visor (dubbed Darth Vader by various onlookers). A blonde woman who looks like Jenna Elfman from Dhama and Greg calmly but loudly responds “I love the Chinese people, so stop yelling at me you Fascist bitch!.”


I wonder if they'll have dragon dancers in Buenos Aires.

There are lots of people there for the social scene - MySpace Radicals. I overhear a guy on a cell phone trying to locate someone else say “but I am waving a sign” as if his commitment has been challenged. Another guy wearing an Obama T-shirt is walking away from the demonstration saying into his cell “I should have worn my Human Rights Watch shirt instead.” For him this is more a fashion show than anything else, and he let down the side by not having the correct couture. Another, walking toward the show tells whoever is listening, “I just wanted to get in a little protesting. You know, get in on this historic moment.”

As the time for the start of the relay nears, the crowd swells, groups of partisans eddy and swirl together, alongside each other, but not touching. Where is the torch? Finally, the word begins to filter through the crowd that the torch dance has moved to an undisclosed location (shades of Dick Cheney), and discouraged, disgusted, people start to drift away.

The Pro-Tibet folks probably feel like they won the day by forcing the change, but they probably would have liked to see a little more dramatic action. I don’t think anybody else (maybe excepting Gavin Newsom and Heather Fong) is satisfied with the end of this gavotte. Everybody had the chance to sound off, but most of them didn’t get heard except by people who already agree with them.