剑桥的朋友很有心，我们在旅途中错过了奥运会开幕式，他却录了下来，让我们当晚就看到了录像。两天后的BBQ结束后，他又特意把录像放给前来参加BBQ的友人们看。于是我得以观察到这里的观众的反应。

剑桥的朋友是伊朗人，因为工作的关系多次去中国，对中国文化很感兴趣，正在努力学习汉语。工科出身的他对开幕式惊叹不已，并尝试破解每个创意是如何实现的。德国夫妇，老头儿看着看着就睡着了，老太太很认真地看，到几个扮演毛笔的黑衣人出来跳舞时，她终于也失去了耐性，咕哝着：“哪几个小黑点到底在做什么呢？”我解释给她听，但是这样慢的节奏的确让人很难有耐心，于是注意力转移，大家开始聊天。伊朗朋友提起北京奥运会的花费，老太太说了一句还有那么多贫困的人吃不饱却把钱花在这上面。我很赞同。

我的意见，非常理解中国政府渴望世界人民了解中国文化的心，但是完全可以少花钱办好事。奥运会首先是一个世界人民（准确说是世界对体育有兴趣的人民）同乐的体育盛事，其次才是政治与经济的舞台。完全不顾外国人民的欣赏趣味，以那么缓慢的节奏演绎内涵丰富的中国上下五千年文化，传播效果恐怕大打折扣。我想北京奥运开幕式的策划者至少忽略了两点基本的文化差异：第一，西方国家近年来比较注意文化多元化和价值观多元化，很多人抱着你有你的价值观我有我的价值观、相互包容互不干预的心态，开幕式过分渲染中国文化反而会让外国人奇怪，觉得中国太注重自己的文化了。对中国产生的印象还是比较封闭，不够开放。第二，西方国家都比较致力于公民的福利，不会把钱随便浪费到公共建筑上。对于开幕式的铺张显摆，西方人很难理解。我看奥运的时候有两个担心，一是担心节奏缓慢内涵太丰富吓走观众，二是担心外国观众了解到中国政府肯花这么多钱办奥运之后中国再有什么灾害就不太愿意捐钱了。很简单，邻居的房子比你家还大，穿得比你还好，却找你借钱给孩子看病，你心里不会嘀咕吗？

下面摘录一些BBC网站上的网友评论，很多很有英式幽默：

* It is a pity the Chinese are so afraid of spontaneous cheers or boos that they have to teach their people beforehand exactly how they should behave. However, it is all of a piece with their regimented society, as it has been for thousands of years.

* Very nice ceremony, thank you. So perfect, it was boring from the start, really. I just don’t see how the expenditure of maybe 100 tonnes worth of fireworks is going to help win the Clean Air Over Beijing battle.

* One of the things that has worried me about much of the reporting of the run up to these Olympics has failed to understand that the Chinese are terribly proud of their culture and want people to see the best of it - but are worried that the west, especially, will simply not understand it.

* Yawn!!!! Yet more sport. Zzzzzzz. Thank God the Proms are on.

* I loved the opening ceremony, really excellent. Do the Chinese people really want their country to change as much as everyone seems to think? I doubt it. Sure you have to register your protest in advance in Beijing, you also have to do that around parliament here. So hypocritical. Sure it’s on a bigger scale, but things start small and just get bigger. And if most Chinese are ok with it, then who are we to force it on them. Just like with Sark, Jack Straw forced democracy on them when they were perfectly happy with the status quo, where’s the democracy in that?? （这里的you指西方媒体）

* I felt the opening ceremony was sensational and the Chinese did extremely well - I wasn’t impressed though hopw the BBC commentators continually brought up political issues with almost every sentence they spoke. They should have been concentrating on SPORT and giving comments on SPORT and the achievements of each country NOT the political connections - they dampened a lot of what was a mgnificent event.

* London has nothing to worry about for 2012.
The most boring opening ceremony I have ever seen.
Why do the BBC presenters feel the need to continually jabber away? Today’s BBC team has managed to surpass even Terry Wogan when presenting the Eurovision Song Contest. They have managed to give me a headache by their non stop verbal diarrhoea. （这个比喻大概也可以借用来形容央视的解说吧，呵呵）
At the end, I had to turn the sound off.

* What does the opening ceremony mean to me? not a lot………it’s just more whitewash and B*/S*.

* The ceremony was spectacular opening to THE WORLDS sporting event. The coming together of sports men and women each with their hopes and dreams in the true Olympic spirit.
Politics has no place. Let us celebrate the achievements, be enthused by this world party. To bring this back to GREAT Britain. Yes Britain is GREATso no more wingeing after the Mayor of London is handed the Olympic flag on 24th August. Let us get on the job to the hold the GREATEST Olympics when we welcome the world in 2012.

* Of course the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony was spectacular and fantastic and must have invoked pride to those involved, but is it a cost-effective way of letting citizens have pride in their country?
For a start, it now means that London will have to try to achieve something even more spectacular, having already spent millions over budget on construction to date. Even worse for any other ‘developing’ nation to be handed the chalice and have to commit huge funds in trying to compete in the provision of spectacular buildings, facilities and razamataz: let alone the fruitless cost of trying to win events that statistically must be beyond them in terms of population size and training costs.

* I am usually one to heed all the criticisms made of China, however I was watching the tens of thousands in the stadium and the countless millions outside the stadium cheer on the Chinese team and the Olympics in general and I thought to myself: “What exactly are we protesting against? The right of the Chinese people to celebrate their culture and heritage? Who are we to take this away from them?”. Anyone could argue that the CCP does not deserve the honor to hold the games, but the same cannot be said of the Chinese people, particularly their athletes who have consistently topped the medal tables. Had the opening ceremony played like typical CCP propaganda, I’d be the first to switch off. This was not what I saw. However, it was the sheer support of the Chinese people that I found captivating. Are we here in the west making the argument that these millions of Chinese people are all brain-washed tools of the CCP. I am not one to heed such racist arrogance.

* After watching the opening ceremony I think London should say to the OC ‘listenguys I think we are in over our heads here and our people are starting to kick up about council tax raises and to be honest ours is going to look like a day out in Bognor after Beijing, so can we have our money back and give it back to the Greeks’ We don’t do big ceremonies, we cannot even fund the NHS, our shools are crumbling, out transport is the most expensive yet worst in Europe so why the hell did we ever apply in the first place? Paris should have been given 2012, we are about to become the laughing stock of the world.

* I thought the ceremony was absolutely fabulous. When else does the entire world unite in a cultural celebration of something positive? Hopefully there will be some good external influence to help improve China’s position on human rights.

* As a Chinese, I find the opening ceremony spectacular and entertaining on the surface. But when I think about the authoritarian repression in China and the government’s totalitarian approach to orgnising this Olympic, all these extravaganza showing China’s “harmony” and “openess” looks hollow.
It was just nationalistic showing off, and the Communist Party is manipulating the Chinese nationalism to legitimize its grip on power.