Scrape TV Home Scrapeipedia The Town of LaRue Community Forum (new) Scrape Store (coming soon)

Scrape TV Humour

Scrape TV News

Scrape TV On the Air

NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > BEIJING BANNING DRAGONS FROM OLYMPIC VENUES

BEIJING BANNING DRAGONS FROM OLYMPIC VENUES

July 31 2008

Beijing, China – With the Beijing Olympics only days away, the government of china has unveiled a yet another restriction in their effort to keep the city clean while they are the focus of the world’s attention.

The government has come under fire over restrictions placed on businesses and people as they prepare for the games. Some of the most controversial restrictions, such as forcing drivers to using cars every other day; restricting certain ethnic groups from public restaurants; changing wording on public signs; and most recently restricting internet access to even international visitors the government has made it very clear that they are changing, however temporarily, for the world. Now the government has banned one of the most iconic features of the nation.

The dragon has long been a symbol of China and Chinese culture, but the government has decided to restrict as much as possible the public appearance of the mythical creature from visiting foreigners. The desire, much like the temporary ban of dog meat in restaurants and the painting of dead grass, is a attempt to cover up what people expect of the country.

“The Chinese government has gone to great lengths to make genuine changes, but there are some things that simply cannot be altered in such a short span,” said ScrapeTV Olympic analyst Maddie Grews. “They are doing their best to disguise the cold hard reality of the city, but this particular step seems a little odd. Trying to control the weather while fantastic a least has a practical purpose, this doesn’t seem to have any real reason. Are they going to remove every dragon from every temple? People already associate China with the dragon, and with human rights abuses, and over-crowding, and poverty, all those things. They may be able to white wash some of those things, but doing that with the dragon just doesn’t se m rational.”

Indeed white washing seems to have been the government’s Raison d’être of late, attempting to make the heavily criticized country palatable for foreigners—read North America and Europe—in an attempt to provide a positive and worldly appearance for its time in the spotlight.

“They seem to trying to de-China-ify the city and make it palatable for the west, even if they revert to their old ways as soon as everyone leaves,” said Wen Yuhan of the Tibet watchdog group SMART. “This is one more way for the Chinese government to spread its lies. Banning the dragon is a symptom of a disease and must be stopped. Free Tibet!”

The Chinese government issued only a brief statement on the ban “Many dragon costumes are made of flammable material and would constitute a safety hazard inside venues,” said a government spokesperson. “Plus, our guests are used large green dragons, not Chinese style dragons. We are putting on a show for them and would like them to be as comfortable as possible while they are our guests. Dragons will return after the Olympics, as will everything else.”

The games open August 8.

Emil Uliya, International Correspondent

NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > BEIJING BANNING DRAGONS FROM OLYMPIC VENUES