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Both returned to native China for Games

Wyoming Seminary students Sicheng (Steven) Luo, 17, and Chang (Michael) Gao 16, talk with a reporter about their time volunteering for the Beijing Olympics.

Aimee Dilger/the times leader

KINGSTON – The Beijing Olympics may have symbolically linked once-reclusive China to the rest of the world, but there is also a slim, strong tether connecting this municipality of middle-class Americana with that mammoth, multibillion-dollar extravaganza: a pair of students who prove that the chasm of cultures and continents is easily bridged by the commonality of teens.
For starters, there’s the first word Chang (Michael) Gao and Sicheng (Steven) Luo used in talking about their experience when they used their summer break from classes at Wyoming Seminary to return to their native Beijing to help Olympic visitors.
“Awesome!” both said separately when asked about the 2008 games, sounding like any American high-schoolers.
Then there’s the reply when asked what struck them most in the transition from China to Kingston: “The biggest change is the food,” Michael answered.
So, though they are from a city nearly 7,000 miles away, their favorite adjective is “awesome” and one of their most important issues is food. Sounds like most American teens, no?
Of course, we’re simplifying. The two have much more to offer.
“In China, you sit in the same classroom all day and the teacher comes to you,” Michael noted, adding that he much prefers the American system where students switch classrooms between subjects.
“What I found amazing was how welcoming people here are,” Steven opined. “I guess it’s because of the diversity here.” And, he stresses, he’s not just talking about Seminary, which hosts students from many nations. He’s had the same experience outside the school.
“Classes in China really start early,” Michael noted, around 7:20 a.m. and they can go on to 5:30 p.m. or later. “And you go to school on weekends.” Another difference: In China, you generally take the classes you’re told to, and take them with students your age. “It’s really different here. You can choose your classes; you can be with people from different grades.”
While American upperclassmen often drive themselves to high school, the two said they typically ride a bicycle, on a trip that can take up to 90 minutes one way. Considering Beijing’s notorious traffic, “it’s faster than a car,” Michael said.
Michael spent much of the Olympics as a volunteer translator at booths set up on the streets to help foreigners. While his specialty was translating for English speakers, he said most of those he helped were actually Japanese. English is widely taught in Japanese schools.
Steven also helped Olympic visitors, but not face to face. He worked for China Mobile, which, by dint of the shear size of the country, is the mobile phone company with the largest number of subscribers in the world. The company partnered with the Olympics and provided what amounted to a call center for help getting around Beijing and the venues. Steven said he worked the phones, giving people info on everything from bus routes to weather forecasts.
“That was you?” Michael laughed. “I called you guys once and got no answer!”
While Steven was paid for his work, Michael got little more than “free food and free water.” And, of course, the chance to be part of what both agree was “the best Olympics ever.” They may be a bit prejudiced, having seen the event come to their home country for the first time, but 1) they have a lot to be proud of, considering the rave reviews many have given both the event and the venues constructed to house them, and 2) they are very quick to stress that it is, first and foremost, an international occasion.
“The Olympics are a way to have contact with other cultures,” Michael said.
The two said they grew up near the heart of Beijing, close to Tiananmen Square, which was originally built as the entrance to the empire’s “Forbidden City.” The Square is now a cultural and historical center most famous, in American minds, for a 1989 protest that ended in bloodshed – an event, it must be stressed, that happened before Michael, 16, and Steven, 17, even were born. A lot has changed.
Their childhood homes, in fact, were razed to make way for modern Beijing, rapidly evolving, according to published reports, into a showcase for skyscrapers and a case-study of contemporary architecture.
Steven frowns at this development. It has meant the loss of a childhood neighborhood and the common green space he and several others shared connecting their brick homes.
Their parents also lament the loss of “old Beijing,” Michael said, in part because “everything was so cheap” before the modernization. It may sound like a lament heard often in America’s senior centers, but here’s the twist: “There’s a reason,” Steven said. “Everyone makes the same money. You might be a policeman, or a manager or executive, but you make the same amount of money.”
Incidentally, the two have high ambitions for their careers. “I hope I can be CEO of Apple,” Michael grinned. Steven’s goal is a bit broader, though just as ambitious. “A manager, or executive,” he said. Umm… of any company in particular? “No.”
If American-style capitalism hasn’t quite infiltrated China, American sports have – at least, when it comes to basketball, one of the Olympic events Michael made a point to attend. Sitting in on the USA-China game had an unexpected perk.
“I saw (President George) Bush,” He said with a smile.
Really? How’d he look?
“He was happy, because we lost, I guess.” Michael laughed.
For the record, it was USA 101, China 70.
He also watched the domination by Chinese divers in the National Aquatics Center, better known as the “Water Cube,” that bubbly rectangle that glowed at night like a cobalt glass lampshade on a low-watt bulb.
What about all that talk of Beijing pollution?
“It’s not as bad as people think,” Steven said. Although many Americans may have heard of the city’s effort to cut down on traffic and smog by allowing driving on even and odd days based on license plate numbers, Michael also noted the city has started banning vehicles – mostly older ones – based on exhaust emissions.
“Things are much better now,” he said.
We felt the need to ask: What about those protestors who tried to disrupt the run of the Olympic Torch on its trip to Beijing.
“They don’t get it,” Steven said. “The Olympics aren’t about one country. They are about the world getting together, about world peace.”
If you want to judge the place, they suggest you do what they’ve done: visit the country you’re about to comment on.
“Go there,” Steven said. “You’ve got to go to Beijing. You’ve got to see it for yourself.”