The auspicious date (I suggest to move it to 13 August) keeps Matthew Crabbe (Access Asia Weekly) very busy. He is another sarcastic fellow writing caustic newsletters. He discovered the worldwide enthusiasm of clueless journalists to talk about a party. Not THE Party (CP, remember?) of course. Follows well less than 50% of his findings:

Access Asia Weekly, Matthew Crabbe wrote:

As ‘coming out party’ is the cliché of 2008, we’ll be tackling those lazy members of the China hack pack who resort to using it. The rules are that using the phrase ironically or to criticise those who do use it doesn’t count – we’re just looking for the lazy, stupid and thick who cut and paste the cliché.
First up is a classic from The Economist. In their annual publication ‘The World in…’, Simon Long, their Asia Editor, made the point that ‘coming out party’ was a cliché on page 13. Then, on page 110, we are told that the main event in Asia in 2008 will be ‘China’s coming out party’!!!

• ‘NBC: 2008 Summer Olympics Coming Out Party For HD’ – Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com
• ‘Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have left nothing to chance for China’s coming-out party this year’ – Reuters
• ‘Much of the pre-Olympics preparation involves convincing the Chinese that the CBC aims at fair coverage of the Games, widely seen as a coming-out party for the Asian juggernaut’ – Pip Bulbeck and Scott Roxborough, Reuters
• ‘The Olympics will be the coming-out party for a resurgent China’ – Patrick Collinson, Guardian
• ‘The Beijing 2008 Olympics (August 8-24) will be the biggest international coming-out party that China has ever seen’ – Screen Daily
• ‘The 2008 Olympics will serve as China’s official coming out party’ – Newsweek Special Edition
• ‘China plans to use the August 8-24 Olympics as its coming out party’ – AFP
• ‘China is treating its Olympics as a gala coming-out party for the nation’ – Canada.com
• ‘This year’s Beijing Olympics, widely seen as a coming-out party’ – New Zealand Herald
• “In many ways the games are China’s coming out party to the world,” said a rep for Olympic sponsor Bank of America.” – Adweek
• “Since much of the world sees the Beijing Olympics as China’s coming-out party, Chinese quality control officials have to assure that the party enjoys safe food.” – People’s Daily
• “With organisers leaving nothing to chance for China’s coming-out party this year ahead of the opening ceremony on August 8.” – China Economic Net
• “…next summer for China’s coming-out party. The Olympic symbol and theme “One World, One Dream” is omnipresent.” – History News Network
• “The Chinese government sees the Beijing 2008 Olympics as China’s coming out party” – Internet News.com
• “The Olympics is billed as the international coming-out party of the world’s most populous country and its dynamic economy” – Philippines Inquirer
• “Opera and fireworks to open Beijing’s coming-out party” – AFP
• “Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have left nothing to chance for China’s coming-out party” – Washington Post
• ‘Still, China is treating its Olympics as a gala coming-out party for the nation.’ – Canada.com
• ‘Around $40 billion are being pumped into new roads, railways, an airport terminal and other projects to upgrade the city and present a modern image of Beijing to the world for the Games, viewed as modern China’s coming out party.’ – Moscow News
• ‘The 2008 Olympic Games are often described as China’s coming-out party, but to many it’s more of a comeback, albeit one that has taken nearly 1,300 years’ – New Statesman
• ‘The Chinese sporting community is pointing to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing as a coming-out party for the nation’s athletic prowess.’ CNN.com
• ‘Beijing has pulled out all the stops in preparing for what it views as a major coming-out party, spending billions of dollars on venues, new subway lines’ – Guardian
• ‘The Beijing Olympics this summer were supposed to be China’s coming-out party…’ New York Times;
• ‘… last year and he described the Beijing Olympics as China’s coming out party…’ People’s Daily;
• ‘China’s $10-B coming-out party this August’ – Belinda Olivares-Cunanan, Philippine Daily Inquirer;
• ‘The 2008 Summer Olympics is going to be China’s coming out party…’ – PC World;
• ‘It will be a coming out party of mammoth proportions for China, with Beijing debuting as the belle of the ball.’ – The Hindu (extra marks for the bell of the ball reference);
• ‘China’s coming out party’ – Mary Hennock, BBC News.
• ‘The decision by the Oscar-winning director comes at an awkward time for China, which is hoping the Olympics will serve as its coming-out party on the world…’ – BusinessWeek (‘coming out on the world’ sounds a bit messy!)
• ‘But whether Beijing’s big coming-out party will be spoiled by the city’s notoriously foul air is still a question.’ – BusinessWeek (again and in the same issue! Oh dear)
• ‘…the Summer Games as China’s coming-out party.’ – Rick Maese, Baltimore Sun
Now that’s enough. Matthew can fill a book with it.

See here the gallery where you will find from the Chinese side, among others:
– Beijing’s vice mayor Mr. Chen Gang
– Beijing Municipal Urban Planning Commission, director Ms. Huang Yan
– Chaoyang District vice mayor Mr. Dai Jilou
– Beijing Foreign Affairs Office, vice director Mr. Liu Yang
And from the Belgian side:
– Belgian foreign minister Karel De Gucht
– Belgian ambassador Bernard Pierre and Mrs. Karin Pierre
– Olivier Strebelle, the artist
– François Narmon, president of the asbl Strebelle in Beijing
– Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Belgian prime minister and board member of the asbl
– Alain Rens and his wife, board member of the asbl
and of course Sun Bin and myself.

During the ceremony the focal point stone and the wall stone were represented by life-sized pictures. The stones, the biggest one being 27 ton, will be put into place after the Olympics. Visitors will climb a small hill to reach the focal point stone; there will be a sign on the top of the stone where to put the camera to have the exact focal spot.
The area around the statues will be remodeled so the ground level will be increased to hide the foundations and to make a garden with pathways so visitors can stroll around the statues.
The wall stone will have all names carved as seen on the picture.
Our company name: Beijing Global Strategy Consulting Co., Ltd.

Before I update my blog software (and mess it all up again), just a few words: the ceremony on 23 May finally went well. Apparently the people over there in Brussels decided to put our names back on their website. They also did include our company in the flyers and in the proper location on the “wall” that will carry the names of the sponsoring companies and the main actors. Not that all was perfect but Olivier Strebelle did put a personal touch in his speech, mentioning our love & fight relation over the past four years. And Karel De Gucht turned out to be pleasant, friendly and handled the Chinese quite well.
Pictures are ready to post – if the new software will allow. So, patience.

Today 23 May 2008 the “Athletes Alley”, the huge sculpture of Olivier Strebelle in the Olympic Forest Park will be officially unveiled by the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.
The whole event is being followed by a large contingent of Belgian journalists. Seems they are being fed strange stories by the “ASBL Strebelle in Beijing”. Seems some people in Brussels suffer from memory loss.
Indeed, the new story is that Strebelle was awarded the sculpture “by winning two tenders”. Hmmm. Cool. Problem is, he didn’t. He joined the first tender years ago and results were never announced.
Later in 2006 another tender was launched to select “Olympic artwork”. We told Olivier Strebelle not to participate for many reasons and he never did. Hundreds and hundreds of sculptures were submitted and hundreds were shortlisted by a jury. No Strebelle. See a picture taken in Wangfujing Street in July 2006 when the shortlisted pieces were shown to the public. The scale models then traveled all over China, “to consult the public”. As for now, no decision on any choice was made public.
Sun Bin in Wangfujing Street, July 2006
So, what is the real story? Well, we lobbied and negotiated for four years with the Beijing officials. Substantial modifications were made to the original design till the Chinese art lovers felt happy. The City then officially agreed to accept the donation of the statue and officially appointed me as the representative as recognition of our hard work.
Oh well, some people probably did not like that and our names disappeared from their website and publications. Of course they kept us as far as possible from the journalists so they could dish up their own story without being disturbed.
The Strebelle project has been an interesting experience. It is already used in my seminars as an example of how to do successful lobbying in China, without greasing the hands of officials to get a project approved.
For Strebelle’s sculpture, getting the approval from Beijing seemed mission impossible. The statue is the only foreign artwork approved in the huge Olympic Park while many other countries and artists tried so hard too.
And no tender. Just through the hard work of Sun Bin and myself.
The “ASBL” is even shooting a movie about it. Don’t count on seeing much of us in it.
Much more to follow on the real story but have a look at previous entries on Strebelle on this blog.
And let’s see what happens later today…