News Release Date:
Thursday, July 31

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Thousands of world-class athletes from around the globe have spent the past several months absorbed in final preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Whitman's Dan Beekman and one of his English language students in Beijing, China.

The same thing can be said about Dan Beekman, a 2007 Whitman College anthropology graduate, varsity soccer player, and Fulbright Research Scholar.

Beekman, a Seattle native, was one of several Whitman students awarded Fulbright funding last year to pursue international research projects of their own design. Beekman has been in Beijing since early last November, focused primarily on researching and reporting about the intensification of China’s Olympic preparations and the ways in which the emerging power is presenting itself to a global audience.

Beekman, who plans to make journalism his life’s work, has posted dozens of entries and thousands of words on a blog – Blogging Beijing – he has written for the Seattle Times website. He also has penned a full-length cultural piece for the Times and a travel article for Everywhere Magazine.

Beekman, who played four years of varsity soccer at Whitman, has found time as well to play on a few soccer teams, and to teach English one day a week to the children of migrant workers in suburban Beijing.

Aside from short trips to the coastal cities of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Qingdao, and a two-week journey through the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Beekman has been immersed in Beijing’s Olympic experience. To fuel his blogging, he has talked with Beijingers on a daily basis, and has continued his research on cultural and globalization issues related to the Games.

"My Fulbright project has, remarkably, gone according to plan," he says, adding that his time and work in Beijing have been "fun, frustrating and fascinating. Beijing is a somewhat stressful city, what with traffic, air pollution, political sensitivities and nearly 18 million people. But many people here are incredibly warm and welcoming. I often remind myself how lucky I am to be observing firsthand a colossal cultural exchange between East and West, and all this Olympic excitement."

"Ten months is a long time to invest in a single event," he continues. "Fortunately, I’m in good company. From government officials to taxi drivers to academics, a good percentage of Beijingers have devoted themselves to the 2008 Games. I haven’t reached any concrete research conclusions, but I hope my reporting has enhanced mutual understanding.

"I’ve tried to explore complexities and contradictions that define these Olympics and life in general here. The Games are a great opportunity for people in the U.S. to learn about China and for people in China to learn about the rest of the world."

The first Olympic events begin Tuesday, Aug. 5, with women's soccer (U.S.A. plays Norway in the preliminaries). The pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies follows on Friday, Aug. 8, and the games continue through Aug. 24.

Beekman, who minored in Mandarin Chinese at Whitman and spent the spring semester of his junior year on foreign study in Beijing, has seen his Chinese language skills improve markedly in recent months, especially on the spoken side. "I speak with much more fluency now, and my vocabulary has really grown ... in a certain direction. I know words like Olympic committee, rhythmic gymnastics and torch relay."

Like many observers, Beekman expects the Chinese athletes to make a strong showing once the competition begins. "I’m sure they will benefit from an incredible amount of local support," he says. But unlike other observers, those who rail against Beijing’s pollution and air quality, he thinks many visitors will be “impressed with how clean, modern and affluent Beijing looks."

Even though Beijing’s pollution problems are a given, Beekman disagrees with those who say the "air is impossibly bad … It seems like the more lasting environmental legacies of the Olympics will be the millions of trees planted in and around Beijing, and to an even greater extent, the new emphasis on environmental education."

Beijing migrant kids: ready for the Olympics

Beekman isn’t hazarding any guesses as to how politics might color the Beijing Olympics in the days ahead. "Since arriving in November last year, I’ve had my expectations proven wrong more than once," he says. "I didn’t expect ethnic tensions to flare up in Western China, as they did in March. I didn’t expect to experience xenophobia in Beijing, as I did following the protests against China’s global Olympic torch relay in London and Paris.

"Some groups will protest here during the Games," he adds. "I wish I knew if political and/or human rights problems were going to seriously complicate Beijing’s hosting of the Games, but I don’t know."

Although the government strictly controls China’s marketplace of ideas, people on the street have many different opinions about the Olympics, Beekman says. "Most Beijingers will say they are happy about the 2008 Games, proud of China for hosting them and excited for the competitions to start. In general, I think people are a little worn out from seven years of preparations. They are anxious for the Olympics to finally begin. Most Beijingers remain optimistic about the prospect of cultural exchange with the rest of the world.

Indoor Ping Pong

"A minority of people are huge supporters of the Games – because they are in government, because they love sports, because they are particularly patriotic etc.," Beekman says. "A minority of people are detractors of the Games – because they aren’t happy with China’s government or because they’re not making as much money as they expected or because they see the Olympics as a large-scale publicity stunt."

In addition to reconnecting with old friends from his undergraduate study abroad semester, Beekman has relished the fact that "I’ve played a lot of soccer in China." Until the start of summer vacation, he practiced on a regular basis with the Renmin University varsity. He also hit the pitch on weekends with a team of international players (mostly Koreans and Japanese), and more recently he joined a team of older Chinese men.

Outdoor soccer

Beekman, a graduate of Seattle’s Garfield High School, will return to the States in early September with plans to settle in New York City. His career goal is to forge a journalism career focused on cross-cultural exchange and/or education. One of Whitman's Phi Beta Kappa graduates, his undergraduate news media internships ranged from the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin to the Tacoma News Tribune. He also worked as a Los Angeles Times editorial intern during his earlier study abroad semester in Beijing.

Beekman is the son of Judith Kalitzki and Robert Beekman of Seattle.

Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.

509 527-5902; holden@whitman.edu