Friday, July 25, 2008

Human Waves Of Pep

China Trains Cheerleaders To Rally The Masses

"The students in one cheerleading class are not leggy athletic girls with pompoms, but rather desk-bound, middle-aged government employees brandishing balloons.

Photobucket
running dog lackies
will be no match
for our yellow balloons of triumph

These workers have volunteered, without pay, to be cheerleaders. They are receiving 10 hours of instruction in how to shout the officially approved slogans, such as "Go China! Go Olympics!"
At least 300,000 such volunteers will make up China's Olympic cheering squads. And 3,000 of those have been trained by Zhang Jinling, a professional enthusiast with a fixed rictus grin of joy.
"We raise our arms and shout powerfully to encourage China and the Olympics," she says to her students. (...)

Zhang reminds her class of their duty: "Our ordered movement, our loud and clear shouts will definitely create a good atmosphere for the athletes, so they'll be able to get new Olympic records on our yellow earth."
With that, she launches into an official Olympic song, complete with a baffling sequence of complicated hand gestures."

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You have to wonder - fifty lashes for the first one to pop their balloon?

25/7/08 12:23 PM  
Blogger nolocontendere said...

Haha, probably not so serious as that, rd, but nothing will erase the shame of one balloon clapping.

25/7/08 5:22 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
To see more details, click here.