Huang Chuncai

So 2008 came in relatively lambish, and goes out a rampaging lion. China had worked eight frantic years planning for two weeks of summer glory. Instead, the Olympics were a brief respite from a ceaseless wrangle: Tibet, the earthquake, the milk, the economy. But scaring people into a state of passive consumerism is the job of the mainstream media. Naïve as it may be, we'd like to focus on the positive, and celebrate China's greatest moments of 2008.

Greatest Medical Moment

And you thought we'd just blather on about the Olympiad. Life in a remote Hunan village involves more than a little struggle. In the case of Huang Chuncai, genetics as well as circumstance dealt him a stiff hand. He suffers from neurofibromatosis, not the same disease the Elephant Man Joseph Merrick had, but don't bother explaining that to the press.

A hundred years ago, "The Chinese Elephant Man" most likely would not have been permitted to live. Twenty years ago, there would have been no use in his dreaming of a life as anything other than a walking freak show. Today, Huang is much better, the life threatening fifteen-kilo tumor gone. And it wasn't the Mayo Clinic but Guangzhou's Fuda Hospital that has made his new start possible.

Greatest Proletarian Moment

Anything as sweeping as China's new labor law is bound to have some unpleasant repercussions: Vietnam is now the first choice for manufacturers who rely on slave labor to keep margins healthy. That's bad news for a lot of big wheels that kept the Chinese train to Richville racing, and millions of cogs who kept those wheels spinning. Here's hoping there's a clever economist who can quantify the effect of letting a billion poor people know it's illegal to use them as factory fodder, that overtime limits, minimum wage, and severance pay aren't just for lucky folks who made it through college. It's the end of an era, but it's also the end of what Geneva's Fair Labor Association once called "China's race to the bottom".

Greatest Technological Moment

So what if it was decades after America and Russia had pulled the same stunt, prompting an Indian newspaper to call it "The Late Creep Forward"? The three taikonauts' trip in the Shenzhou 7 made China the only other country to attempt a spacewalk. Furthermore, a paranoid race to world-domination wasn't the motivator, so much as the prospect of a Chinese space lab, and someday a space station. Crew member and new national hero Zhai Zhigang wasn't the first man in space with a humble background (his mother sold fried melon seeds to put him through school), but he was definitely the first to eat gong bao chicken in orbit.

Greatest Cultural Moment

"They faked the fireworks on TV! They faked the fireworks on TV!" Yes, and they fake that star with the logo that looks like it's flying over the football stadium, too. Whatever digital purists thought of the enhanced fireworks display, it was hard to discredit the grand opening ceremony spectacle put on by Zhang Yimou and a few thousand close friends. Far ranging but coherent, traditional yet innovative, the performance achieved a level of artistry and thematic brilliance hard to find in movies, let alone live shows. With one third of the world watching, Zhang must have turned quite a few on to the fact that there's more to China than kung fu and General Tso's chicken.

Greatest Architectural Moment

The Burj may reign as world's tallest building, but does Dubai even have the land mass to hold the T3? Norman Foster's elegantly gargantuan tribute to boarding and deplaning pushes the million square meter mark. Built in only four years, Beijing's great red dragon leads many to question whether it will not have a few cracks in its armor before long.  For now, though, it's a 27 billion yuan investment in giving up to 50 million visitors a year a massive, modern welcome to China.

Greatest Online Moment

This year saw a record 253 million Chinese Internet users, a 56 percent gain from 2007. Since the China Internet Network Information Center calculates only 20 percent penetration, compared to 71 for the U.S., we could easily have 300 million online before 2009 is over. That's an awful lot of video slaughter, sleepless teenagers, and smoke-filled Internet parlors. It's also an unimaginably potent force for the power of shared information, despite the frantic efforts of censors and firewalls.

Greatest Environmental Moment

Beijing residents put up with a lot leading up to the Olympics: nonstop construction, tightened security, condescending public service announcements. One restriction made it worth all the hassle, though - the odd and even license plates rule. With half the cars off the road, crossing the street became less like Frogger and more like Mr. Roger's neighborhood. Best of all, the fetid grey curtain behind Beijing's stage magically parted, leaving twenty million people breathing easier. Who knew there were mountains at the edge of the city?

Greatest Moment of Heroism

Sadly, such moments usually come only in the face of great tragedy. No words or deeds can console the many thousands who lost loved ones in the Sichuan earthquake. But China can take heart in the unrivaled display of selflessness that followed the disaster. We'll never know all the stories of courage and sacrifice that played out in those dark days, but we do have a compelling narrative of the Chinese people's proverbial resilience.