I've been real busy these days. Besides watching the Olympic Games on TV for hours and hours, I've had a good taste of the Western world's criticism of China. From radio shows to the Internet, China is the biggest controversy.

The Beijing Olympics is, without a doubt, an extremely emotional moment for China. For Americans, it's not easy to sympathize with a country that's geographically and ideologically half a globe away. But, take a moment to read what an American consultant living in Shanghai had to say. Kent Kedl, the author and general manager of Technomic Asia, watched the opening ceremony at two bars -- one local, the other expat-oriented. Find the original article in the China Business Blog.

During the singing of the Chinese national anthem at the opening ceremonies, many people had tears in their eyes, as if they had just won a gold medal after many long years of training. Well, in a sense, they have. Even if much of post-Liberation history has been erased from the books here, the shame of the Opium wars and Japanese colonial occupation is learned by wrote. So, to see 80 world leaders gathered with 91,000 others in a stadium to be watched by -- probably -- nearly a billion more on television, all to recount 5,000 years of Chinese history and contribution to world culture and commerce ... well, that should be emotional.

So I say, let China have its moment. Are there still problems? Of course there are. But I believe that the way out of these problems is through the pride and (yes) abject nationalism of the Chinese people themselves. Pride in building a nation into the fourth largest economy in the world over the past 20 years is child's play compared to the challenges of building one that represents justice for every one of its citizens. Given that, over the past 200 years, we Americans have not been able to do this ourselves -- and, in fact, have slipped drastically backwards in recent years -- should give us all pause.

But give it time and the Chinese people will stop comparing themselves to where they have come from and will start measuring themselves against where they could be. Then -- and only then -- will change happen in China.

Twenty years ago when I was teaching in a Teacher's Institute in rural China, where the average wage was barely $40 a year, I never thought I would see this day. So I am going to gather with my friends and neighbors at the local pub and will lend my voice to the shouts of "Zhong Guo Jia You!!" ("Go China!!"). I, too, get misty when I see a Chinese gold medal winner on the stands and hear their national anthem. I am not Chinese and I will never claim to know what it is like to be Chinese, but I am honored to be here among them as they are discovering just what that is.

It makes me sad that the Chinese people are unaware of and unprepared for the criticism, and, undeniably, some hostility from outside the country. Three in four Chinese believe the world loves China, partly because the government blocks foreign media [details in a Washington Post article].

It's time for China to face the music, take it gracefully and strive to improve itself -- all aspects of the society. In the end, action speaks louder than rhetoric.