How does one prove one's love for the Olympics?
Let me count the ways. First come those who express their passion by pushing their bodies to the limit.
Take the 41-year-old who recently spent 44 days paddling down the Yangtze River on a raft made of rubber inner tubes and a plastic basin as a case in point. He was intercepted by river inspectors on the final leg of his journey near Shanghai but was still not deterred.
"It was my way of welcoming the Olympics," he said.
Another 57-year-old acupuncturist paraded on the street in southwest China's Chongqing municipality with more than 800 acupuncture needles implanted in his forehead. He says he has already booked a hotel room in Beijing as he plans to insert 2,008 needles into his head during the 2008 Olympics.
Fortunately, many others have chosen to show their feelings in much safer ways, such as an octogenarian who has spent three years embroidering 2,008 butterflies and Olympic symbols on white cloth about 27m long and 1m wide.
Mr Zheng in central China has been collecting small parcels of soil at post offices from his Internet pals in 2,800 counties in China in order to piece them together to make a Chinese map as a gift to the Games.
And thousands more have found their enthusiasm for the Games put to good use, as event organizers across the country step up promotions with an Olympic pitch.
On August 8, which marked the one-year countdown to the start of the Games, 2,008 pairs of young people played Go, a strategic board game for two players, in a small town in northern Shanxi Province, while 2,008 musicians strummed away on Guzheng, a Chinese musical instrument, in eastern Jiangsu Province.
Residents in a community in eastern Beijing will have to wait until October to see their votes counted for a photo contest featuring "2008 smiling faces" to greet the Olympics, while Chinese lovebirds are being encouraged to tie the knot at a group wedding next year. Organizers hope the 2,008 couples from the event will use their bodies to form a bird's-eye view of the Olympic rings, or play human dominoes to give their blessings to the Games.
While marveling at the power of the Olympics in forming a social consensus and mobilizing nationwide support, I wonder if some people or organizers have gone too far in welcoming the Games.
Some, like the river paddler and the acupuncturist, have even been accused of "scandalizing" the event with their daredevil antics to generate some personal fame.
Let us hope that public disapproval or scorn can deter future individual adventurers from attempting dangerous stunts in the name of the Olympics. The Olympics is after all about celebrating humanity, not about entering the Guinness Book of World Records for their eccentricity.
By the same token, the mass celebrations involving thousands of people deserve greater public scrutiny to avoid tacitly encouraging an inrush of misguided Olympic marketing opportunities.
When the government is involved, the organization of such events in the run-up to the Games should also be less costly and labor-intensive, despite their best intentions.
When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao inspected the Olympic venues being built in Beijing recently, he said that China would avoid any extravagance in organizing the Olympic Games. "We should save every drop of water and every kilowatt-hour of electricity in the construction of the Olympic facilities."
The principle should also apply to the Olympic celebrations, to make sure that every ounce of human energy is well used and every penny of taxpayers' money well spent.
