Foundinchina.com

A good question for many - if not most - people living outside China, for whom ‘Everest’ is a household name that conjures up images of Hillary and Tenzing, Mallory and Irvine as they braved inhospitable conditions on route to the summit. But China wants nothing to do with such days of ‘imperialist’ mountaineering glory, stubbornly refusing to use ‘Everest’ in their English language media sources. Until today, that is.

Before I get bombarded with calls to get my facts straight, I’m sure that ‘Everest’ must have been uttered or written before by China’s state manacled information outlets; it’s just that on all previous occasions that I’ve seen or heard their references to the daddy of the Himalayas, it has always been called the tongue-twisting ‘Qomolangma’. Quite right, too, I might add, although Tibetans prefer ‘Chomolungma’ and the Nepalese have a fondness for ‘Sagarmatha’.

Today, however, marked a new milestone of symbolism that called for the world to know exactly what had been achieved. The only way to convey this important message was to grudgingly acknowledge that the world’s highest peak has a more recognisable and less phonologically challenging moniker: Everest.

So, what was this remarkable feat that the Chinese wished communicated to the English-speaking world? It could only be the latest claim to greatness of the torch relay. China’s very own superlative-laden global tour (longest, angriest, loudest, most protested, most politicised etc) came of age this morning at approximately 9am local time when it also became the highest.

Once the summit had been achieved, all that remained to do for China’s Olympic PR machine in order to secure the positive coverage and global accolades it desired, was to get the word out. Unfortunately, ‘Qomolangma’ is not a word that currently has any hope of achieving such an objective. To secure the prize, therefore, it was necessary to swallow the bitter pill of imperialism and utter the hitherto unthinkable ‘E’ word.   

Australian anchorman Edwin Marr made a valiant effort with his pronunciation of ‘Qomolangma’ before adding an officially sanctioned “…known in the west as Everest.” His relief was palpable.

Not so clear were the pictures of the torch expedition’s assault on the summit. I guess that’s not surprising given the unpredictability of conditions at 29 000 feet. The perfect propaganda shot would have been a gallant climber astride the roof of the world holding aloft a flaming torch against a stunning backdrop of blue skies and lesser Himalayan peaks. As it was, we saw a dozen people in climbing gear struggling against the elements in a nondescript icy wilderness.

It really could have been anywhere, and it didn’t look like anyone was standing on top of anything. There’s certainly nothing conclusively ’summit’ about the pictures at China Daily. Let the conspiracy theories begin. For the record, I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, it’s been done a thousand times (without the torch) in the last 55 years.

One nagging question: having gone to all that trouble, why not plant an Olympic flag atop the world’s highest peak and give us a picture like this. Nagging questions could be avoided, of course, if members of the international media had been allowed a little more access to information than this diary of events on the mountain indicates.