历史最佳：压轴出场 中国队旗格外高

　　在中国大陆的小对手台湾(在奥运会场合称为中华台北)运动队入场，以及听上去像是一个邮寄地址的中国香港队入场时，观众席上爆发出热烈欢呼。

　　有时候，观众对政治的关注，超出了他们自己所在的地域。观众对伊拉克队报以特别响亮的掌声，这被解读为一种反美姿态。俄罗斯队也受到热烈欢迎，这比较奇怪。而阵容庞大、几乎望不到头的美国队，则仅得到散乱的掌声。

　　几乎没有人注意到，有个别运动员是在付出了超人的忍耐与痛苦之后，才有幸参加北京奥运的。比如担任南非队旗手的左腿截肢的游泳运动员娜塔莉·杜-图伊托(Natalie du Toit)；从苏丹难民成为中长跑运动员的洛佩兹·拉蒙(Lopez Lomong)，通过一项具有高度政治色彩的安排，他担任美国队旗手；或者柬埔寨马拉松选手布廷(Hem Bunting)，他在简陋的国家体育场训练，住在体育场附属的遍布苍蝇的宿舍。

　　苏丹队本身也值得一提，其举重运动员用充填了混凝土的油漆罐训练；肯尼亚有数名运动员在不久前席卷该国的暴力中遭受了巨大痛苦；还有来自黑暗的津巴布韦的运动员。在另一方面，瑞士队的旗手则是亿万富翁罗杰·费德勒(Roger Federer)。他们都有幸汇聚在奥运会上：富人、穷人、矮个子、高个子。

　　但这些运动员明白，他们并非开幕式上的明星，因为当

　　上周五的夜晚属于中国，那时，中国人的感受确实像一个人民共和国。很可能，今后两周都属于他们。

　　There were big cheers for China's little rival, Taiwan (diplomatically called Chinese Taipei in this event) and for the team billed as Hong Kong, China, which sounds like a postal address.

　　Sometimes the crowd took notice of politics beyond their own corner of the globe. Iraq got a special roar, which was interpreted as an anti-American gesture. So did Russia, which was more surprising. The welcome for the US team, which stretched out almost to infinity, was patchy.

　　Hardly anyone noticed the individual athletes whose presence was often the result of extraordinary endurance and suffering, like the one-legged swimmer Natalie du Toit who carried South Africa's flag; or the Sudanese refugee-cum-middle distance runner Lopez Lomong, who, in a highly political gesture, was given the job for the US; or the Cambodian marathon runner Hem Bunting, who lives in a fly-blown dormitory at the ramshackle national stadium where he trains.

　　There was the Sudanese team itself, which does its weight-training using paint pots filled with concrete; the Kenyans, several of whom suffered grievously in the recent violence, and the benighted Zimbabweans. Switzerland's flagbearer, on the other hand, was the squillionaire Roger Federer. They were all blessed to be there: the rich, the poor, the long, the short and the tall.

　　But the athletes knew they were not the stars of the show, because then the stadium erupted for the Chinese. Their flag was carried higher than anyone else's, but then it was carried by the 7ft 6in basketball player Yao Ming.

　　It was China's night, an occasion when a people's republic felt, for once, like just that. It will probably be their fortnight.