The city of Beijing features significantly in promotional materials for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. A telling example is the Beijing Olympics emblem, ‘Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing’. Its wide circulation during the Olympics has left an imprint on people's minds: whenever one sees the symbol, one is reminded of the Olympic City, Beijing. Beijing was not only a host city, it was also a symbol assigned with national significance. The Beijing that was connected to the Olympic moment intended to be a city that conjured up positive memories for Beijing residents and Chinese citizens, as well as the diaspora and the world at large.

A key Olympic slogan – literally ‘New Beijing, New Olympics’ (新北京, 新奧运) – indicated how the state envisioned the role of Beijing: a ‘new’ Beijing brought a ‘new’ Olympics that marked a ‘new’ Chinese era. Beijing needed to dress up, with new clothes, to present a new and fresh outlook to welcome the world to China. The English version of this slogan differs from its Chinese version: ‘New Beijing, Great Olympics’. The reason for this is probably that it would be considered too immodest to claim to produce a ‘new Olympics’ in English. Suffice to say that by emphasising the word ‘new’ in its Chinese slogan, thus predominantly addressing the Chinese, the official material drew discursive power from a prevailing discourse in China that celebrated the idea of ‘new’ and progress (Zhang 2000; de Kloet, Chong et al. 2008).