Awesome Display of Chinese Dominance

While I didn't see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics this summer, I did hear a lot about them. I guess they were quite a spectacle. While one friend called them "terrifying", others were less impressed, observing that one could do a lot with $50 mil.

Anyway, the chatter reminded me of an image I had seen before, of the Chinese putting on a great display of uniformity and cooperation that was surely just as powerful in its day, and definitely did not cost $50 mil. I hunted for the image, and eventually found it in Arthur Toynbee's great work "A Study of History" - this is the 1 volume version with lots of pictures, not the 12 volume unabridged version.

Here is the caption:
The new society? Athletic display in Modern China: Westerners tend to see in China a repulsive modern Leviathan, but behind the ceremonial lies an ideal of mutual solidarity and co-operation from which a fragmented world may learn.