Transfixed by the spectacle.

It's Party Congress fever in this city! The front-page article in today's Southern Weekly provides a snapshot of the various ways in which the congress has touched the lives of Beijing's inhabitants this week. The pull-quote:

This morning, Beijing residents Han Xiuying and Han Xiuchun were riding on a public bus and watching the live broadcast of the 17th Party Congress. They forgot to get off, and as a result, they had to ride another circuit around the traffic-clogged Third Ring Road.

Writing in The Observer last weekend, Will Hutton made the case that the Party Congress is the most important political event of the season, justifying all the hubbub surrounding it. The Telegraph's Richard Spencer replied in a blog post that the furor over a carefully scripted show is more than a little ridiculous.

John Kennedy at Global Voices Online collected the views of the cynical side of China's blogger community in a post earlier this week:

From this we can see, the news spokesperson is quite possibly a failed bit actor who with The Party's caress, finally found his motivation.

They're all actors! Just watch which ones win the awards!

And Beijing Newspeak surveyed a few western news reports, and then went off on a hunt for Beijingers around Qianmen who were interested in the goings on:

First up was a souvenir seller with cheeky dimples and a winning initial sales pitch. "Hey, Mr Handsome, you like Mahjong?" After we steered the conversation to the "shi qi da" (the big 17th), she replied, "It doesn't matter to people like me, I am not important enough. All I care about is making money, enough so I have food and clothes. Your mother like scarf?" (Last bit in English).

Beyond the buzz are the buzzwords. Xinhua noted that "democracy" showed up 60 times in Hu's speech (though The Economist duly noted that Jiang used it about as often). The China Media Project calls the buzzword race for "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics":

"Socialism with Chinese characteristics" (中国特色社会主义) logged the most number of uses, appearing 52 times in Hu Jintao's political report to the 17th National Congress. A distance second, "scientific development" (科学发展) racked up 38 appearances. Used a total of 34 times, "opening and reform" (改革开放) finished third, just edging out "harmony" (和谐) at 33.
...
The sharp rise in "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "opening and reform" reflects the party’s basic direction for the next five years. It is, first and foremost, a reaffirmation of the path of reform and opening in response to the left's opposition and call for a turn back. Secondly, it is the striking of a middle path between the socialism of the Mao era on the one hand and clamors from the right for "democratic socialism" (民主社会主义) on the other.

With these two major preconditions in place, Hu Jintao formally ushers out his own banners, "scientific outlook on development" and "harmonious society." Both of these phrases are about making moderate corrections to the GDP-focused economic reforms of the Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin eras in order to address economic disparities.

The second-place keyword, Hu's "scientific outlook on development," is the focus of an article in the latest issue of the Xinhua newsweekly Oriental Outlook:

After the Scientific Outlook on Development was proposed, it quickly became a keyword in all major party papers, magazines, and news agencies. The People's Daily was no exception. A systematic investigation of People's Daily reports clearly reveals the development of Scientific Development.

The article goes on to list some of the major milestones in the development of the theory. Here's a rundown:

• 14 October, 2003: A report from the Third Plenary Session of the 16th Party Congress contains the first clear statement of the Scientific Outlook on Development: People-first; comprehensive, balanced, sustainable development; the overall development of the economy, society, and the individual."
• 5 November: People's Daily runs an opinion piece titled "Establishing and actualizing a Scientific Concept of Development."
• 30 November: Hu Jintao emphasizes Scientific Development in remarks to the Central Economic Working Conference. People's Daily follows up with relevant articles, including a long essay by Xiao Zhuoji that calls Hu's concept "important guiding thought."
• 2004: Throughout the year, People's Daily applies the concept to various sectors, including public finance, labor unions, party building, environmental protection, public security, and army building.
• October 2005: The Fifth Plenary Session of the 16th Party Congress elevates the concept to "guiding principle for the socialist modernization drive."
• 18 November: People's Daily publishes a related commentary by Zheng Xinli, deputy director of the Central Committee's Policy Research Office.
• December: The Central Economic Working Conference indicates that the concept will be applied to various sectors in the coming year. The key phrase to come out of this meeting is "good and fast," which prioritizes quality over speed.
• September 2007: People's Daily launches a front-page series on Scientific Development and the Harmonious Society in the runup to the 17th Party Congress. It features reports on Liaoning Province (3 September), Tianjin (12 September), Shanghai (21 September), and Changsha (5 October) which extoll the achievements those areas have made in following the scientific concept of development to build a harmonious society.

Not to mention the substantial presence of Scientific Development in this week's flood of 17th Party Congress coverage. And of course we can expect a whole series of related articles in the coming year, tapering off only when the next generation of leaders have to push their own trademark ideology.