The games play out half a world away from Cary’s manicured streets, but the Beijing Olympics speak of home to many in the local Chinese community.

Winnie Lin has been watching the games every night.

“We’re rooting for both sides,” said Taiwan-born Lin, who works as a secretary at the Raleigh Chinese Christian Church in Cary.

The pomp and circumstance of the games — initiated by a dazzling opening ceremony drawing heavily from Chinese culture — has even inspired 46-year-old Lin’s American-born children to learn more about their roots, she said.

Lin’s own parents left China in 1950, soon after the communist party took control of the country.

These 2008 games have been called a world stage for the new China.

The country remains controlled by the Communist Party of China, but has developed a more market-friendly economy and greater personal freedoms for its citizens.

“(The games) really make me proud. China has changed incredibly in recent years,” Lin said of the games’ showcase of her country.

Even with China’s changes, the choice of the country in 2001 as an Olympic host wasn’t without it critics.

Detractors have pointed out China’s lackluster human rights record and the heavy smog clouding Beijing’s air during these games.

“There are definitely a lot of areas China can improve” said 40-year-old Owen Chen, a Chinese native turned Cary resident and SAS software researcher.

Chen, who came to the U.S. in the early 1990s to study at MIT, said international attention brought by the Olympics will force China to address some of its problems.

He also hopes the attention will let the world learn more about his country’s ancient and diverse history. China has more than 50 ethnic groups, he noted.

Politics aside, the Olympics are really about the athletes, and Chen has always been an Olympic watcher, no matter the host country.

His favorite sport? Badminton — he used to play — though he jokes that it’s seldom televised.

Cathy Kimball has been tuning in to swimming, marveling at American swimmer Michael Phelps’ myriad gold-medal wins.

Kimball, 45, of Cary, grew up in central China and is publisher of the China Star, a Chinese language paper based in Cary.

While she appreciates that the Chinese teams have “gathered a lot of gold,” she roots for the Americans as well.

When an American and Chinese team go head-to-head she said that she and her American-born husband sometimes have their own competition while watching, each picking a side.

But choosing whom to root for isn’t always easy, even for her friends in Beijing, where Kimball lived for 20 years.

The most popular tickets there are to any game featuring the USA basketball team, which contains many NBA players well-known in China, Kimball said.

Kimball said that her friends worry about the USA team facing China in the game. They’re worried that they’re true basketball feelings might not be so patriotic, she joked.