Ask This Taiwanese: “Boycott the Beijing Olympics?”

Ask “This” Taiwanese is an advice column dedicated to pesky and uncomfortable questions about Taiwan or about being Taiwanese. Our perspectives are a blend of Taiwanese and American. Our belief is in democratic values. Our motto is “We see you. We hear you. We will speak up”. We will go where no one is willing to go out loud – come with us! This should be fun!

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Dear Ask “This” Taiwanese:

Hanging out with friends and celebrating the new year 2022.  They asked me – probably because I am Taiwanese – what’s the best way to boycott the Beijing Olympics.  What do you think?

– from a Boycott Novice

Dear Boycott Novice,

At Ask “This” Taiwanese, we are all about affirming democratic values and promoting democracies so you definitely have come to the right place to think this through!  And we say it is never too early in the year to think about how to keep making the world a better place.

Founded in 1894, the modern Olympic Games or Olympics was conceived to bring the nations of the world together for some good-natured competition and celebrate the spirit of our common humanity in the promotion of Olympism. But in reality, it was first an exclusive club for Western, first-world countries, and then it became a “coming out” event for many countries to promote a particular political agenda, ironically often values contradictory to Olympism, to “prove” they have made it to both the international community and the domestic audience. Governments have used the Olympics to justify large-scale spending, infrastructure projects, and silence dissent in order to manufacture a positive image for the world’s cameras resulting in something called sportswashing.

Unfortunately from sporstwashing to genocide, there are just too many concerning things about the Chinese Communist government in China to list as reasons for boycotting the 2022 Beijing Olympics fanfare so we will just let this Wikipedia page summarize all possible reasons.  Whatever your reasons are, It is always important that your personal protest is done with style and even better if you can do it while keeping a light heart.  The truth about our collective common good is ultimately really just the sum of our individual better nature.

So to start, we recommend that if you live in any of the countries that have already declared their 2022 Beijing Olympics diplomatic boycott, you can send a note of thank you to your Congressperson or Parliamentarian for standing up for human rights and democratic values!  It is good practice to encourage and recognize the good work when they are done! 

If you want to be more private about your protest, you can create your own entertainment coverage alternatives during the 2022 Beijing Olympics game broadcasting, between February 4th to February 20th.  Here are 10 documentary films and 10 sports movies that we recommend:

10 documentary films that counter sportswashing from the 2022 Beijing Olympics::

1. Gate of Heavenly Peace (documentary and interviews of protesters in 1989)
2. The Tank Man (Frontline documentary)
3. China undercover (Frontline documentary)
4. Inside China’s Camps (BBC)
5. Interview with Jimmy Lai about his arrest in Hong Kong (Deutsche Welle)
6. China’s Covid Secret (Frontline documentary)
7. Covid – What Chinese officials knew (BBC)
8. Was covid-19 made inside a Chinese lab? (60 minute Australia)
9. Nobel awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to an empty chair where Liu Xiaobo was absent in 2010 (Nobel Prize)
10. One of the last TV interviews of Liu Xiaobo in 2008 (ABC four corner)

10 fun sports movies reminding us how sportsmanship and citizenship matter:

1. Battle of the Sexes
2. King Richard
3. Cool Runnings
4. Miracle
5. Blades of Glory
6. Race
7. Sandlot
8. Rudy
9. Remember the Titans
10. Eddie the Eagle

If you feel like making your feelings more public, here are 10 social media post ideas that you can use to post on either Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook with hashtags #beijingolympics, #beijingolympics2022:

1. Any picture of Winnie the Pooh

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi really hated that someone once compared his body shape to Winnie the Pooh and since then this image has been banned on the Chinese internet.

2. Any Picture of Seven of Nine characters from Star Trek

This is a play on the numbers for the date July 9th, 2005 when 300 lawyers and human rights defenders were arrested.

3. Any Picture of Vancouver area code 604

The numbers 6 and 4 are banned around June 4th every year to erase the brutally squashed protest in Tiananmen on June 4, 1989.

4. Picture of the Tank Man who stood in front of a row of PLA tanks in 1989

This picture was smuggled out by photojournalists after the military crackdown of the June 4th, 1989, pro-democracy protest in China.  This picture and the phrase tank man are both banned inside China.

5. Any picture of any dirty cabbage

By playing with the sound of the former Chinese vice premier’s name Zhang Gaoli, you could end up saying dirty cabbage in Chinese. The play on the sound of his name is rather appropriate as he has been accused of sexual assault by the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai.

6. Picture of Tom Holland dressed up as Rihanna performing Umbrella

We are making fun of both the Chinese ban on androgynous looks and invoking symbols for the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement – the Umbrella Movement.

7. Picture of an empty chair from Nobel peace prize

This is to honor Liu Xiaobo, writer and human rights activist, who was not allowed out of China to receive his Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and died in 2017.  The Nobel peace prize was given to him with an empty chair.

8. Picture of Hong Kong University Pillar of Shame

Hong Kong authorities removed the statue from the Hong Kong University campus during the Christmas week of 2021 in their latest attempt to erase any memories of the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

9. Picture of the Goddess of Democracy

China removed the statute from the Chinese University of Hong Kong school ground during the Christmas week 2021 in their attempt to erase any memories of the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen massacre

10. Picture of a sad panda

We know authoritarianism makes a panda sad.

If you feel even more ambitious, you can also write letters, start petitions, or raise boycott campaigns targeting American corporate sponsors of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.  Here are the corporate sponsors for the 2022 Beijing Olympics, you can appeal to their sense of corporate citizenship:

• Airbnb
• Bridgestone
• Coca Cola
• Dow Chemical Company
• General Electric Company
• Intel
• Proter & Gamble
• Visa

And NBC is the official US broadcast of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. You can appeal to them to address the discussion about human rights issues in China to their Olympics game coverage.

Lastly, you can also look to show up and support protest movements by Free Tibet, Free Uyghurs, or Free Hong Kong groups in your area too.

Change is cumulative so we thank you and your friend for this timely question!   In the name of optimistic defiance, we quote Friday Night Lights “Clear Mind. Full Heart. Can’t Lose”!

Here is to fighting the good fight!!

Ask “This” Taiwanese

(Feature photo by Partynia, CC BY-SA 4.0)