The Unity of Opposites

My eyes feasted on the explosion of colors and the sheer symmetry of human forms paying homage to the majesty of nature. Truly, the Beijing Olympics is the most beautiful of all the past Olympics games opening of all time.

What made it extremely beautiful and distinctly the most memorable, is its message–all of humanity are one. And China is the truest living testament of that unity.

For thousands of years, China was a fragmented country composed of differing tribes and kingdoms. It was only when the Chin dynasty in 221 BC subjugated its last adversarial state that China was formed. What we see as China today is the result of centuries of state evolution. That process involved civil wars, revolutions and subjugations in the name of Unity.

Now, China is one of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses. It is poised to assume its destiny–that of being the anti-thesis of America. China is on its way of realizing its dream of being the “center of the earth”.

And China knows that that dream is just an arm’s length away. Its foremost adversary, the United States, is facing economic stagnation. Its paradigm of subjugation is also wasting away. China also realized that it is not the use of "isms" that world dominion can be achieved. It is the spread of Chinese culture that enables them to conquer the world stage.

China is telling us that unity can be achieved without bloodshed. That tolerance of one’s culture is the way to go. And that unity can be achieved with harmony with nature, as what the Tai Chi symbolizes. The Unity of Opposites can be the harmony that we want to achieve.

And China is celebrating because it is leading a global cultural revolution. That opening salvo is their Baccalian way of celebrating their triumph in the world stage. They are in the midst of conquering the world with harmony, not of war.

Well, tell that to the Tibetans.