| Page 2 of 2 < |
Posh Parties Show a Beijing Awash in Capitalism
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"This Great Wall was a military fortification, and yet today is a symbol of peace and friendship," said Pan, chairman of the development company Soho China, welcoming his guests before a series of Chinese and foreign musicians entertained the crowd.
In fact, during the Olympics, many parties have been banned by public security officials, said Gao Li, marketing director for the Party Maker, a Beijing-based event planner.
"Only Olympic sponsors, the government and foreign embassies can host parties these days," said Gao, who helped the British government rent out and transform a privately owned traditional courtyard home in the popular Houhai neighborhood for $4.4 million for the duration of the Olympics.
Many of the parties have been at the "cultural houses" set up all over town, where foreign governments are pitching tourism, securing investments and offering up networking opportunities. Guests can find vodka (Russia House), Heineken (Holland House), caipirinhas (Brazil House) and chocolate (Switzerland House).
Gao said that in the last two years, parties in the capital have become more sophisticated, incorporating themes and traditional Chinese culture and in one case employing workers dressed as Qing Dynasty servants.
Inside the Olympic Green, the Chinese culture on display has not been completely ersatz. Organizers at the Johnson & Johnson pavilion had carefully shipped to Beijing five terra cotta warriors from the famous burial site in Xian, where the first Qin emperor decided that he needed an army of 8,000 to protect him in the afterlife.
"We had to bring them to Beijing because this is a common cultural heritage for all humankind to appreciate and enjoy," said Wu Yongqi, director of the museum in Xian, who came to open the pavilion last week. "The Olympics are a very good stage and venue for us to showcase this very epitome of Chinese civilization."
Johnson & Johnson just so happened to create an anti-fungal solution that the museum used to help preserve the warriors when a bacteria was found to be eating away at the soldiers.
After the party at the Commune, one guest remarked on how Chinese the event had felt.
"It was a small smattering of international folks in a Chinese venue, run by Chinese, filled with the Chinese crème de la crème," said Christopher Thomas, a deputy general manager at Intel China. "The Games are overtly corporate, with huge booths, huge billboards, huge numbers of tickets given away to corporate VIPs. . . . But at this Olympics, the corporates are simply interlopers into the local scene, playing at the edges. The local money, the relationships, the dynamics are all Chinese."
Visitors leaving the party were driven down the hill, through Shifoying village and past a small family inn where the owners charge $4.20 a night.
"Do you mean the party we're not allowed to attend?" said the hotel's owner, a woman surnamed Gao, when asked about the party.
"They always host parties," said her husband, who gave his surname as Hou. "But we cannot enter. The Commune and our village are two separate worlds."
News researchers Zhang Jie in Beijing and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
