Culture : China Hoping to Heal Its Wounds With Asia Games : Beijing has never looked better as it awaits the competition that begins Saturday. However, there is little domestic support for the event.

A grandmotherly woman from the local “neighborhood committee,” the grass-roots unit of China’s Communist system, appeared at a factory worker’s door to seek a contribution for the Asian Games.

“Get out of here. Beat it. Scram!” replied the young man, whose pay had already been docked to help cover a contribution by his factory to the event, which is a sort of mini-Olympics for Asian nations.

“If you don’t want to give, then don’t give,” the woman replied. “No need to be so rude.”

Amid much public apathy, some open resentment and only scattered patches of enthusiasm, Beijing is putting on its best face for the Asian Games, which open here on Saturday and run to Oct. 7.

The city is already emblazoned with colorful banners, welcoming billboards and ubiquitous statues of Panpan, the cartoon panda that is the games’ mascot. A wave of construction has been rushed to completion at the new Asian Games Village and throughout the city. Peasants, including some who labored to put up the new buildings, have been chased out of town. Beijing never has looked so prosperous.

China’s leaders hope the games will boost the nation’s image and mark a virtual end to the international ostracism that followed last year’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. About 100,000 foreign tourists are expected to visit during the games, according to official predictions. Hotels should be filled close to capacity for the first time since the June, 1989, massacre.

Domestically, the games are being pushed as a rallying point for national pride and a focus of propaganda calling for “stability and unity.” A set of torch relays through China’s provinces is spreading a taste of the event and its message throughout the country.

The games should be “a grand gathering representing the unity of Asia and the Asian people,” Premier Li Peng told Shin Kanemaru, a powerful elder in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in remarks last month reported by the official New China News Agency.

Kanemaru’s visit reflected the gradual improvement now under way in Sino-Japanese relations, a process that the games should advance. China’s leaders seem to believe that once good relations are restored with Tokyo, better ties with the United States and Europe cannot be too far behind.

The president of the Chinese Olympic Committee He Zhenliang said recently that success with the Asian Games should provide a foundation for China to bid for the Olympics in the year 2000.

Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait represents an unexpected blow to Beijing, however.

Expectations originally were that about 4,600 athletes from 38 Asian countries would participate in the 27 events at the games. The Iraqi occupation has not blocked Kuwait from sending a team of 42 athletes who were out of the country when Iraq invaded. They arrived in Beijing on Monday.

But it is now very possible that either Iraq will be banned or else some Arab countries may boycott the games. A final decision by the Olympic Council of Asia is expected Thursday, just two days before the games are due to begin.

Another headache for the government is the fear that with crowds of Chinese fans gathered for sporting events, some spark could ignite political protests.

“Some hostile elements at home and abroad do not want the Asian Games to be a complete success, so they will try by every possible means to create disturbances and even resort to sabotage,” Wang Dingfeng, deputy director of security for the games, told reporters last weekend.

Beijing Mayor Chen Xitong, in a June interview with the Japanese news agency Kyodo, said that China has increased production of tear gas and has beefed up squads of riot police to handle any demonstrations during the games.

Security in Beijing, including late-night roadblocks at which cars are stopped for identification and searches, is already intense.

Attempts are being made, however, to hide the security fist in a velvet glove.

The official People’s Daily ran an article last month about how paramilitary police stationed at the Workers’ Stadium are studying English “as part of activities to ‘show off the image of China’s armed police and give foreign guests a good impression.’ ”

“These fighters work more than 10 hours a day, and when they come back in the evening they’re very sleepy, but they wash their faces with cold water and open their books,” the newspaper reported.

Despite a flood of such inspirational prose, residents are giving decidedly mixed reviews to the games’ preparations.

Many people object to the price tag for the games, estimated at about $530 million. While most of the money has come from the government, about $125 million is coming from sponsors and donors.

Donations were supposed to be voluntary. But many people such as the angry young factory worker who insulted his neighborhood committee representative have been forced to give at their workplaces.

Also, many Beijing residents, including students and others, have been required to “volunteer” for weekend manual labor at construction sites.

Another controversial measure is the superficial refurbishing of residential compounds, an effort that is giving Beijing something of a Potemkin Village flavor.

Many crumbling neighborhoods of old one-story brick houses, due eventually to be torn down, have been hidden behind remodeled storefronts or gray-and-white walls embellished with traditional architectural flourishes. Nothing has been done to improve the homes, but viewed from passing cars on major thoroughfares, the new facades do brighten the city.

Residents of high-rise apartments have been ordered to clear their balconies so that they will look neat from the streets. In some buildings, all balconies have been glassed in, regardless of individual preferences.

“People don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” a bank employee commented. “These new buildings and meeting halls are too fancy, and they won’t be used much. Spending so much money on this kind of thing isn’t worth it. And this business of painting the outsides of buildings facing the street while the insides are old and dilapidated is phony. Of course, it makes things more attractive, but we shouldn’t trick ourselves. It’s not just foreigners who are unhappy about this. Chinese people are even more unhappy.”

So many people are upset, in fact, that a taxi driver confided recently that warnings have been issued not to complain about the games to foreign journalists. Drivers have been threatened with 10 years in prison if caught criticizing the games, he said.

A young woman who works in a factory said that the preparations remind her of an old Chinese phrase, which is based on the traditional idea that to be fat is synonymous with prosperity: Dazhong lian chong pangzi--”Slap one’s own face until it’s swollen, in an effort to look imposing.”

“The country should improve its economy for several years to give us the ability to hold an Olympics or Asian Games,” she said. “Holding it so early like this makes you feel that our ability isn’t up to our ambition.”

Yet this woman seemed caught up in the drive to make Beijing a more pleasant place, with flashes of idealism counterbalancing her cynicism about the official efforts.

“Seeing these banners and slogans everywhere gives people an empty, superficial impression that we’ve done a good job,” she said. “Putting up a few banners with slogans on them in a store doesn’t necessarily mean that the store’s goods and services will be good. If we really want to bring credit on ourselves, we should do it in our actions and in our hearts, not just on the surface.”

Authorities have attempted, with only limited success, to bring some order to Beijing’s chaotic traffic by cracking down on jaywalkers and cyclists who routinely ignore red lights at all but the biggest intersections. A campaign against the “three crimes of messiness”--spitting, littering and dumping--is also under way.

Even dogs are a target. Partly because they often are not vaccinated against rabies, which kills tens of thousands of people annually in China, dogs are viewed as a threat to health and the environment.

“The Asian Games are coming soon, and Beijing should carry out with determination a ‘wipe out dogs’ campaign,” a commentator wrote last month in the official Beijing Daily. “We should truly achieve the practice of ignoring the masters when killing dogs. Regardless of whether the owners are rich and arrogant, even if they’re awesomely famous, even if they’re powerful, all should be viewed the same--the dogs should be killed without delay.”

This is not just idle ranting.

One Beijing resident told of an acquaintance whose unlicensed pet dogs were killed by neighbors. With an attitude mixing pride of accomplishment and criticism of the dog-keeper’s transgression, the neighbors then personally presented the bodies to their owner.

Times researcher Tamara Perkins contributed to this report.