Iqra’i

Yglesias frets over the destructive effects of the economic subsidies China’s government argues for fuel consumption. Unsurprisingly, I’m alarmed by the cultural signals encouraging fuel consumption. For heaven’s sake, look at the official cheers for the Olympics (h/t Nicola):

In time, she also chants: “Aoyun! Jia You! Zhongguo! Jia You!” - meaning “Olympics! Add petrol! China! Add petrol!”

“Add petrol!”, the nation’s favourite sporting chant, is more usually translated as “Go, Go!”

I wouldn’t pretend to be steeped in any Chinese rhetorical tradition, but it would seem to me that it couldn’t be too difficult to replace some more eco-friendly wind- or sun-related metaphor for “Add petrol!” As it stands, the message is pretty explicit in positioning gasoline as the single fuel driving all of China.

Then again, the Chinese government has a history of lagging behind its critics in terms of aesthetics…

_{Incidentally, the Telegraph article mentions “international cheering standards.” Do such things actually exist? Does anyone enforce them?}