The Olympic opening ceremonies are usually spectacular, and this year was no different. Zhang Yimou is a great movie director with a fabulous sense for visual scenes–if you’ve never seen Raise the Red Lantern, I strongly encourage you to do so–and he outdid himself in these ceremonies.

However, as I have complained in the past, NBC’s coverage left something to be desired. The announcers, including the insufferable Bob Costas, continued to talk through many of the ceremonies, including one of the songs, and he and his pompous co-host belittled numerous countries whose main flaw seemed to be that they are not political allies of the United States. They even had the nerve to berate countries for not living up to what they consider the “Olympic spirit,” when their divisive comments were anything but representative of that spirit.

What is particularly annoying is that whenever the announcers mentioned China, they inevitably mentioned some flaw in China’s behavior or politics. Somehow, I do not remember them feeling obligated to say such things about the host country when the Olympics were held in Atlanta.

NBC is also very biased towards American athletes, rooting them on to win as many medals as possible against all those lesser other countries. How is that representative of the Olympic spirit? Frankly, their attitude makes it easier for me to root for Italian athletes first, and Chinese athletes second. For various reasons, I have a fondness for China, and I am very happy having Italian heritage. I realize that my connection to Italy is tenuous at best, and I am not so self-deluded as to consider myself Italian. I was born and raised in America and I am two generations removed from Italy. I do not speak the language at all, and my sole experience in Italy was two weeks during which I felt sadly like an American tourist rather than a son of Italy visiting my homeland. I definitely envy my students who were not only raised in Italy or China or India, but who retain close ties to their country and its culture. At least when they root for their countries in the Olympics, other people do not consider them some kind of traitor.