Another huge tribute should be paid to the 1.47 million Olympic Volunteers in Beijing. In my opinion their efforts were phenomenal. Last night the IOC demonstrated that they share that view when for the first time in Olympic history they thanked 12 representatives of the volunteers with the presentation of a bouquet.

But so many of the hopes, dreams, tears, sweat, pride and hard graft have been invisible for the last seven years. A well-made documentary film, Dream Weaver, recorded the story of how a number of individuals and groups were preparing for Olympics, including a special police team, construction workers at the National Stadium, young gymnasts, sports icon Liu Xiang, and an ordinary family whose former home was on the very site of what is now the Bird's Nest. Beijing is changing fast. People met all of life's challenges to present their best face, or even just a warm smile, to the world.

The most dazzling and memorable section of the Closing Ceremony was the magical Memory Tower, built of 30 tons of steel and consisting of five stories of elevated structure. Performing artists swarmed over the tower and 16 long lucky cloud yarn strips were raised to the heavens. But rather than its initial idea, I saw it as some kind of Tower of Babel, a temporary symbol of united humanity together in the stadium.

 This memorable scene preceded a rather anticlimactic finale, where flat and forgettable pop and folk songs were performed by pop stars like Chow Wah Kin, Liu Huan, Jackie Chan, Wei Wei and a number of other performers. With everything boiling up nicely in the expectation of a happy-ever-after mess of a party, the song The Flame of Love, performed by tenor Plácido Domingo and soprano Song Zuying and meant to be romantic and inspiring, was something of a disappointment in spite of the fascinating vocals and costumes.

(China.org.cn August 25, 2008)