ABSTRACT
Taking as its point of departure the traditions associated with the Olympic Games, this essay discusses the sentiments and aspirations of a nation ‘betwixt and between’; one that is recovering from a traumatic modern history; is promulgating the ideology of harmony as part of the formation of an intangible social structure; and is experiencing uncertainties in the government about how to fulfil its political vision of establishing a ‘harmonious society’. Specifically, drawing on both anthropological theories of ritual and data collected in Beijing as part of long-term multi-sited fieldwork, the essay looks at three displays of cultural performance during the 2008 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies: ‘Footprints and Five Rings’, ‘Harmony’ and ‘The Memory Tower’. Through analysing how China attempted to use the opening and closing ceremonies as public rituals for realizing its dream of reinventing itself as a nation, and how this ambition has been frustrated and promoted, the essay hopes to demystify China’s coming-of-age rite of passage from an anthropological perspective, and to bring a new dimension to the development of concepts of ritual by using Beijing as a case study.
