After losing the bid for the 2000 Games by just two votes, China won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games in a landslide. Joyful crowds flocked into Tiananmen Square, and the government celebrated a new symbol of China’s arrival on the global scene.

But unrest in Tibet shook China’s preparations, and violence dogged China’s ambitiously long torch relay.

Liu was not impressed with how the Chinese press or the Chinese people comported themselves during the Games, expressing disdain for what he perceived as a burst of misguided nationalism.

Ai Weiwei here expresses similar regrets over participating in the “strange, surreal nightmare” of the Beijing Olympics: