베이징 올림픽(2008)으로 본 중국의 대외문화정책– 개막식 공연과 그 상징을 중심으로

Abstract

China’s greatest contemporary strategic threat is its national image. The country’s most important strategic challenges are as diverse as sustained economic growth and the Tibet issue, but they have at their root a shared connection to China’s national image. Even leaders’ desire to maintain internal stability has ties to how the country is seen and how it perceives itself. Consequently, China was determined to make the 2008 Beijing Olympics a celebration of a Chinese renaissance and the harmony of world civilizations under the slogan “One World, One Dream.” The Beijing Olympics posed a great test for how China balances policies with major contradictions: between encouraging nationalist pride to increase internal cohesion and fostering the harmony of different civilizations to improve the country’s external image and between containing the Tibetan independence movement and promoting national reconciliation. China’s preferred national image depended not only on Beijing staging the 2008 Games as an extravagant festival in the Olympic spotlight but, more importantly, on how well China balanced its policies in these areas against its socio-political background. An examination of the political dynamics of the Beijing Olympics can enrich knowledge of China’s national image building. My main argument is that the Beijing Olympiad marked a watershed in China’s renewed efforts to develop a modernized, unified, and internationalized nation in the global community and has served as fresh impetus for China’s continued modernization drive.