By Kelly Proctor, Special to the Times Free Press

BEIJING — High school senior and Olympics volunteer Greg Bai is one of 100,000 Chinese people this August who hopes to “show Beijing’s smiling face” — the mantra of the volunteers — to the rest of the world.

Mr. Bai, 18, proudly showed off his smart Olympics volunteer uniform last week, complete with blue shirt streaked with a white curly pattern (meant to represent the flames of the torch), a fanny pack, plastic bracelets and visor. He recited the Olympics cheer, which includes clapping, thumbs-up and arms raised in a victory “V.”

More than a million people applied to be Olympics volunteers, and 100,000 are serving as Olympics and Paralympics volunteers, according to the official Web site of the Beijing government. A great many are like Mr. Bai: young, optimistic and proud to be Chinese.

A recent Pew Research Center poll showed nearly 90 percent of Chinese unflaggingly are positive about the course of their nation and its economy. That’s up nearly 40 points from four years ago.

“There’s a proverb that means ‘as the water rises, so will the boats.’ Likewise, as China’s economy continues to improve, my fortune will rise as well,” Mr. Bai said in Chinese.

Frances Fremont-Smith, an American who has lived in greater China for 30 years, said she comes into contact with many such young people.

“Young Chinese today are so excited about the future of their country, filled with hopes and dreams like never before,” she said.

“In earlier days young Chinese would say how lucky I was to be American or come from America,” said Ms. Fremont-Smith, who has been teaching in northeastern China since 1978. “Now there is the same friendly feeling towards Americans, without the pang of envy for the lifestyle.”

Bob Edwards, a teacher of Chinese at St. Andrew’s Sewanee School near Chattanooga, recently returned from a six-week trip to China with people from Hamilton College in New York. He saw similar hopefulness among the people he met, as well as astonishing economic progress, he said.

“It seemed there was never anyone who was withdrawn or unexcited about their country’s bright future,” Mr. Edwards said. “I first visited China 25 years ago, and the changes since then have been immense. Beijing had then maybe 50 taxis. Today, (there are) over 60,000.”

Tellingly, the number of Chinese who agreed children need to learn English to succeed has fallen from 90 percent four years ago to a little more than 75 percent today, the Pew study showed.

It seemed the world had come to China at an Olympics rowing event Aug. 15. Australians, Finns, Britons, Americans and others braved the heat while athletes rowed by. Everyone seemed to respect China’s moment in the sun. When a man dressed as a giant Chinese flag jumped around on the stands, the crowd yelled out, “Zhongguo jia you (Let’s go, China!)” with him — except for a British man who shot a thumbs-down and said, “Go Great Britain!”

Sabrina Sun, 20, said she became an Olympics volunteer to “show foreigners the hospitable side of Beijing” and help the Beijing games succeed.

The games also shows visitors how far China has come, Ms. Sun said.

“The Olympics represents the progress since Reform and Opening started 30 years ago,” she said, referring to the policy that let foreigners invest in China and opened China to the West.

Ms. Fremont-Smith, said hosting the Olympics gave young Chinese a newfound sense of respect for their country and its place internationally.

“Each time China wins a gold, all Chinese have an ultimate sense of, ‘I knew we could do it and now everyone else knows, as well,’” said Ms. Fremont-Smith, executive director of FutureGenerations/CHINA, whose programs include a nationwide environmental education awareness project.

To be sure, China has problems to overcome. According to statistics from Reporters without Borders, a Paris-based organization that advocates for international free speech, China is the nation that jails the largest number of journalists and freedom-of-expression campaigners. At least 33 journalists were in prison as of Jan. 1, according to the organization.

Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights organization with 2.2 million members, reports that even though the Chinese government promised to improve human rights violations before the Olympics, many rights defenders continue to be held in prisons across China, are under house arrest or are tightly monitored by police.

Still, many Chinese are fiercely nationalistic. And even people who complain about problems such as corruption will follow up quickly: “But things have gotten so much better.”

According to volunteer Mr. Bai, China can’t help but succeed.

“China has left feudalism and skipped right over America’s capitalism,” he said. “According to Marxist theory, when China becomes purely communist, we will be a harmonious and successful country.”