Girls groomed to award Olympic medals

The willow-thin high school student is one of 34 Chinese girls “training” to be an Olympic medal presenter at the Beijing Foreign Affairs School (BFAS), one of several state-run colleges charged with producing camera-friendly girls for awards ceremonies.

When not balancing books on her head to improve posture during medal presentation rehearsal sessions, Li and her class-mates study English, cultural training and look at pictures of past medal presenters and their uniforms.

Most important for Li, though, is the smile.

“I practice at home, and smile to the mirror for an hour every day,” Li said, beaming radiantly in a red waistcoat and high heels on the sidelines of a class.

“I want to present my smile to the world, and let them know that the Chinese smile is the warmest.”

Beijing has earmarked about US$40 billion to put on its best face for the Games, with Olympic venues accounting for only a small percentage.

Along with big-ticket items like subways and roads, Beijing has spent billions more on a beautification campaign that has seen whole neighborhoods razed and thousands of residents displaced.

But despite the completion of all Olympic venues months ahead of schedule, Beijingers’ manners remain a concern for officials.

Fearing rougher local habits like spitting could offend foreigners, Beijing launched a massive public relations campaign last year, and has posted thousands of “civilization” volunteers at bus stops and subway stations to teach people to queue.

“Building the software for the Olympics is much harder than building the hardware,” said BFAS director Li Zhiqi.

“Personal qualities and mentality are firmly ingrained and therefore hard to change.”

Cut-throat competition

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