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Journalism of Courage
The 2008 Beijing Olympics have been so obviously planned as a grand celebration of the new China that spectacles of scale were to be expected. But early shots of the city8217;s new airport 8212; on course to be operational months in advance of the games 8212; still inspire awe. Conceptualised by design guru, Norman Foster, it will have the world8217;s largest terminal, creating a million square metres of floor space. It is, as London firm Foster and Partners boasts, the largest construction project in the world. Construction work started in mid-2004 and is on course to be complete by the end of this year. But it is the design that catches the imagination. Foster8217;s dragon-like roof with colours of the Forbidden City is meant to send out the message to arriving passengers that they are disembarking in China, but a China with modernist aspirations.
This is why Beijing is being so carefully scrutinised by those interested in urban renewal. In the run-up to the games, its skyline is being remade by avant-garde architecture. China8217;s emphasis on scale is being made aesthetic with the harnessing of leading international architects. And the city is already experimenting with drastic measures to reduce air pollution, a dreadful and possibly games-stopping consequence of the very economic rise that is to be unveiled next summer. How China handles the attendant media scrutiny as it waves in international visitors through Foster8217;s marvel too will be interesting. To take just a small example: would it expect reporters filing copy in media centres to navigate over the Great Firewall of China but not report on the government8217;s intense censorship of the Internet?
