Shanghaiist

China's women's basketball team reaches semis

Maggie Rauch — 2008-08-21T00:08:20+07:00

With its 77-62 win over Belarus Tuesday night, the Chinese women's basketball team has met coach Tom Maher's goal of reaching the Olympic semifinals. It is a vast improvement on the team's ninth-place finish in the 2004 and 1996 Olympics, and its failure to qualify in 2000.

China won despite being outrebounded 41-22; the 27 turnovers by Belarus (to China's 11) made the difference, and then some.

Though Sui Feifei (隋菲菲) is the team's most famous player, she scored just 6 points last night, on par with her performance throughout the Olympics. Against Belarus, it was captain Miao Lijie (苗立杰), yet again, who took the game over for China. She led all scorers with 28 points on 71 percent shooting. Miao was key to China's upset of the United States in an Olympic test event in April, pacing China with 26 points. The 27-year-old point guard from Harbin is quick on the drive and a pesky defender. She's averaging 19.5 points in the Olympics.

China's route to the semifinals also included wins over Spain (67-64), New Zealand (80-63) Mali (69-48) and the Czech Republic (79-63). Its only loss came at the hands of the undefeated US team, a 108-63 trouncing.

China will play its semifinal game against Australia Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time. The teams played each other about two weeks ago in the FIBA Diamond Ball for Women tournament in Haining, with Australia winning by 14 .

For more China sports news, check out China Sports Today.

Miao Lijie image: 2008.qq.com

Video: The Mime Olympics

Ada Fredelius — 2008-08-21T00:04:09+07:00

Well, if you don't have time to watch all of the Olympic games, here's the ultra-short mime version, performed on Japanese television. We especially like the swimming.

Liu Xiang apologizes, promises a comeback

Maggie Rauch — 2008-08-20T17:31:40+07:00

Injured hurdler Liu Xiang has written a letter to the people of China and his supporters worldwide, which was posted on Chinese national track and field coach Feng Shuyong's (冯树勇) blog yesterday. Below is a translation of Feng's post:

I have already been in touch with Liu Xiang several times since he pulled out of the race as an absolute last resort. Right now as far as Liu Xiang is concerned, he needs to get back to normal as soon as possible, he needs to fully recover from his foot injury. Now via my blog, I will relay Liu Xiang's feelings.

To all the people who care about and support me:
I am thankful for all understanding and support the people who care about me have given me. At this moment in time I feel sad for all the people who are still disappointed at my pulling out of the race.

On July 13, 2001, the date that Beijing won its bid for the Olympics, it was also my 18th birthday. This intertwined the joy of my birthday celebration and the joy of the successful bid. Although I was an unknown athlete back then, the dream of every athlete was to participate in the Beijing Olympics. I've been putting in everything I've got toward this goal.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, I realized my dream of being an Olympic champion. From that moment onward, my unshakeable goal has been to defend my Olympic title in my own motherland. I've always enjoyed facing challenges and have never been willing to accept defeat – this is just the way I am. As a matter of fact, when I stepped onto Greek soil, I was very confident in myself.

As I won more and more championships and more people began to pay attention to me and give me support, I also endured growing pressure and puzzlement in my life. I am unable to relax and party without restraint like other people my age. I also can feel the expectations of the entire country at any moment.

I know that everyone was eagerly anticipating my performance yesterday [August 18] – I also wanted to fight to the finish, as you've all see me do before. But it's truly my foot… please believe that nobody is feeling more sadness and pain than me. At the same time, please believe that I'm the same Liu Xiang I've always been.

Innumerable friends sent me text messages and called me after seeing me get injured and walk off the track. I am sincerely thankful for the friends that understand, support and encourage me. I would also like to thank all the Chinese people, who in these years have given me tremendous support and credit.

I believe I still possess great strength. You all will see a Liu Xiang that runs even faster.

For more China sports news, check out China Sports Today.

Liu Xiang image: blog.iqilu.com

Eye on Gay Shanghai: Gay Swim Teams and Other Olympic Sports

Shanghai Fag Hag — 2008-08-20T14:25:38+07:00

In honor of the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai’s #1 fag hag scoured the city for info on gay sports. Everyone knows a large gay contingent can be found daily at our most popular gyms. However, did you realize Shanghai also hosts gay swimming (we’re sure Michael Phelps or Zhang Lin are welcome), badminton, table tennis, volleyball and even kungfu!

Rainbow League is the fantastic association that organizes many of the gay sports clubs in Shanghai (more info available in Chinese here). They were created about one year ago as a splinter group of the national gay organization, Sunhomo. Currently, Rainbow League boasts about 700 members and offers a mix of athletic and cultural activities.

Rio, the friendly co-founder, said they started the organization so that gay people have a venue to make friends and play sports. Although for many participants, their families are unaware they are homosexual, they feel comfortable joining in gay sporting activities. Rio says, "Generally, outsiders don't realize it's a gay club, but they are curious as to why there are only males!" Predominantly Chinese men, about 10% of the members are foreigners and there is a mix of gay, straight, and bisexuals.

For reasons that many of us can guess, the most popular activity is the swimming club. The groups meet throughout the year and in five different areas of Shanghai. The most popular faction is the Huangpu team that gathers at a middle school pool near People’s Square. They have up to 70 attendees in one night! The Rainbow League’s swim teams even won three bronze medals at a mixed gay and straight swim competition in August. Even if you’re not an Olympic athlete, you can still join as they offer free coaching.

Kungfu is another popular gay sport. This group meets in Zhongshan park on Saturdays and has about 50 members. Go kungfu pandas! (Urgh, was that politically incorrect?)

To participate in one of Rainbow League's sports team, you are only required to pay the facilities' fees. However, they also offer a 5 RMB membership card, which entitles you to discounts at the various sports venues. At present, besides swimming and kungfu, the group offers badminton and table tennis as well as cultural clubs like English salon, photography, KTV, and finance. Watch out for their new volleyball listings scheduled to start in September!

Rio is happy to answer questions about Rainbow League in English or Chinese and can be reached at qcshhz@hotmail.com or you can catch him at the Shanghai LGBT event at Frangipani the last Thursday of every month.

P.S. There are rumors of a gay Riviera-like pool party circulating. Will keep you posted! If you have any tips to share on the gay scene in China, email shanghaifaghag {at} gmail.com.

Photo provided by Eastglam (Full disclosure: We don’t want people to accuse us of trying to pull another Beijing Olympics subterfuge. This pic is taken from the Bangkok Pride, not the actual Shanghai swim meet.)

Click for stats on the number of Gay Olympians.

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NBC gives Americans a beginner's course in all things Chinese

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-20T14:06:51+07:00

NBC's US$1 billion deal to become America's official Olympic media for the Beijing 2008 Games was part of a record breaking $2.3 billion deal that included the the 2004 Summer Olympics ($793m) and the 2006 Winter Games ($613m). In what they've called the single most ambitious media project in history, NBC has sent the largest media contingent of about 3,000 to produce a whopping 3,600 hours of coverage. While we were in Beijing last week, we were fortunate enough to catch sight of Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker of The Today Show which broadcasts live from their open air studio on the Olympic Green. This marks the sixth Olympics that the show has travelled to and every evening here at 7pm, the studio attracts an enthusiastic crowd of (mostly) Americans waving flags and banners hoping to say hi to friends and family just waking up back home.

Apart from all the usual sports coverage, NBC has devoted a great part of its programming to giving Americans a 101 course in all things Chinese — from language to fashion, food, architecture and travel. Here's a smattering of what we've found online. Expect to see a huge surge in China-bound American tourists after the Games.

Catch the videos after the jump.

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Gymnasts add to China's medal count

Maggie Rauch — 2008-08-20T12:25:41+07:00

Victories in men's gymnastics yesterday helped China add to its gold tally. The host country, as of noon on Wednesday, has 43 gold medals. Here are two gymnasts who had huge performances yesterday:

Li Xiaopeng enters Chinese gymnastics pantheon
Li Xiaopeng (李小鹏) beat out Yoo Won-chul of South Korea and Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan to claim his fourth gold in men's gymnastics—this time in the parallel bars. This Olympics Li has surpassed Chinese gymnastics legend—and the star of these Olympics' opening ceremony—Li Ning as the winningest Chinese gymnast ever, with a total of 18 international first-place finishes to Li Ning's 14.

Zou Kai wins men's horizontal bar
Li's teammate Zou Kai (邹凯) beat out Jonathan Horton of the US and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany to win gold on the last day of artistic gymnastics competition. The medal is Zou's third gold medal in his first Olympics – earlier in the Beijing games he won gold in the men's team competition and also in the individual floor competition.

Li Xiaopeng image: news.cctv.com
Zou Kai image: english.people.com.cn
For more China sports news, check out China Sports Today.

Buying Olympics Tickets: A How To Guide

James Creegan — 2008-08-20T12:24:10+07:00

Before the games started, buying Olympics tickets was thought to be impossible and/or vastly expensive- instead it seems to be easier than getting a table at Spicy Joint.

Writing from Beijing 2008 with a fistful of used ticket stubs, and a pocketful of money left over to buy more, Ben Ross gives these tips on finding seats for the last few days:

Pick an event and show up at the venue an hour early.
Arrive at the event knowing you may be walking around aimlessly for the next hour or two scavenging for a ticket. Patience is a must.
Be aware that there is probably a 15% chance you will not get in to the event at all. more if Kobe, Yao Ming, Phelps, or ~~Liu Xiang~~ will be competing that day.
Find an area near one of the gates where spectators who have just arrived are walking in.
If you see more than one yellow bull (the Chinese term for a ticket scalper / tout) in the vicinity, find a new location.
Know the price of a face value ticket, and have the money (exact change) in hand ready to pay.
Approach people heading towards the venue, and politely ask them if they have an extra ticket to sell. It doesn’t hurt to emphasize the fact that you actually want to see the event
If the event has already started and you still don’t have a ticket, don’t panic. From the minute the competition starts, the value of tickets drops rapidly.
Go alone. Olympic tickets were originally sold in pairs, Finding two tickets together is hard, three or more tickets virtually impossible. For some more low-demand events (i.e. baseball and beach volleyball) you can usually sit wherever you want once you enter the stadium.

Full post, and more from Beijing here

Our own experience from Beijing suggests that hanging out in bars brings rewards, particularly a bar called Old Town Roses which seemed to be the HQ of some kind of ticket agency.

How the Olympic medals were made

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-20T10:50:08+07:00

China Tech Roundup: Pirated Olympics, emotional damages, and wireless Guangdong

Ada Fredelius — 2008-08-20T05:00:25+07:00

Two Shanghai software professionals have been deemed guilty of copyright infringement after selling pirated Microsoft programs. According to Shanghai Daily, the pair had bought genuine Microsoft software to get a permission agreement and added pirated software to it to make buyers believe they were buying the genuine article.
Although we're used to hearing about Chinese copyright infringement, the China Tech News reports that a majority of pirated Olympic broadcasts were made outside of China: About 1,600 pirated broadcasts happened across the world, of which 85% were done in developed countries. Only about 100 came from China.
Video sharing site Tudou has now recorded nearly 70 million individual users and 25 million daily searches of its almost 13 million videos.
Shanda, the company behind online game Legend of Mir, has been sued for emotional damages by a user. The gamer claims he suffered these damages after the company froze his account.
The Guangdong cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan might soon have a unified wireless network. The local government plans to make this area the first "wireless city group" in China, but many more of these areas are under construction./li>

Photo by Aether Woo

Foreign prisoners support the Beijing Olympics too

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-20T01:37:54+07:00

The local Xinming Evening News 《新民晚报》points us to this uber-harmonious picture of foreign prisoners housed in the Qingpu District Jail standing by their paper model of the Bird's Nest, made with lots of love over the course of 28 days with 18,000 pieces of paper. Awwwwww....

Videos: Chinese retirees, troublemaker rockstars and Olympic souvenirs

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-20T01:35:13+07:00

Al-Jazeera: Chinese retirees live it up with dancing

Al-Jazeera: Chinese rocker Cui Jian, whose song Nothing to My Name became the unofficial anthem of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, says he supports the Olympics but that rock-and-roll stars are born to be trouble-makers.

Al-Jazeera: Five-time gold medallist US swimmer Aaron Peirsol talks about about the physiological impact of competing at the highest level.

NoCommentTV

SMG: Wu Minxia's father says her bronze did not come about easily.

NTDTV: Religious dissidents detained during the Olympics

France24: Tourists under surveillance in Tibet

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Photo of the Day: Lightning storm

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-20T00:01:32+07:00

Photo by Chad Ingraham

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).

High drama for two Thai restaurant owners

Eric Hu — 2008-08-19T22:14:54+07:00

In place of the usual scoops and updates on the happenings around Shanghai's restaurant scene that make up his weekly "New and Noted" column, this week SH Magazine food eminence Christopher St. Cavish gives us a tale of revenge and betrayal with two embattled Thai restaurant owners as the players. Though the issue isn't on stands yet, it's already up here on the SH website. St. Cavish gave us a follow-up via email that we won't include here. Suffice it to say that he doesn't see through their recent claims of truce, especially since one side is still flaunting its financial advantage over the other in a fight that leaves us still planning on Coconut Paradise for our next Thai food fix.

Thanks for the story and the chuckle, Chris.

Around Shanghai: Faster trains, safer sex and lower stocks

Ada Fredelius — 2008-08-19T21:44:53+07:00

Despite earlier protests, there will be a new maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou. This week, the local government announced that the construction of this line will start in 2010, three years later than planned. It is supposed to be finished in 2015, when we will be able to go to Hangzhou in just 30 minutes.
Things are looking dark on the Shanghai stock market: This Monday the Shanghai Composite Index ended down 5.34 percent, at 2, 319.868 points. Over the last seven days, it dropped a whopping 14.95 percent.
Safe sex is on the agenda, this week we read about free condoms in the office district of Jingan, now Shanghai's university and college campuses will get condom vending machines. According to Shanghai Daily, 85 percent of the students in a recent survey found it most convenient to buy condoms from machines, rather than in stores. We just think it's a little unfair that the students have to buy their condoms while office workers get them for free.
On August 30, the newly built Shanghai World Financial Center will open its observatory decks, the highest deck is 474 meters above sea level in the 492-meter high skyscraper (it is actually the third-tallest building in the world). Tickets to this deck will cost RMB 150.
Local traditional skills and crafts will be preserved at a new center in Shanghai's Xuhui District. This week the government of Xuhui District announced that they will allocate RMB 1.5 million over the next three years to this project.
Photo by Xinhua News

Video: Reactions to Liu Xiang and the race that wasn´t

Ada Fredelius — 2008-08-19T13:07:01+07:00

China's star hurdler Liu Xiang, who won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, pulled out of the Beijing Olympics yesterday, disappointing hordes of fans. The Wall Street Journal talks to the man on the streets to find out what they think.

Chili discovery at new restaurant Munchies

Eric Hu — 2008-08-19T11:30:00+07:00

We were first introduced to Cincinnati-style chili back in the States when our roommate brought back a few cans of Skyline chili from his hometown. Poured over spaghetti and topped with a mound of shredded cheddar cheese, the chili's consistency was much thinner than the denser, Texas-style chili that we had come to cherish. Still, the finely ground beef and combo of spices made it a memorable one time experience before we packed up for China. At least, we thought it was a one time thing, since its lack of availability in California was a pretty good indicator that we probably weren't going to come across it in Shanghai.

Fast forward five years and Shanghai now has its very own purveyor of Cincinnati chili in Munchies, a new eatery in Jing'an that had its grand opening the same day the Olympics kicked off. The menu includes specialties from a swath of regional American favorites, including hot dogs, sandwiches, burgers, and even some Tex-Mex. The New Orleans Cajun Po' Boy (42 RMB) was a little disappointing, with the non-fried shrimp not abundant enough, but the jerk chicken sandwich (36 RMB) was pretty tasty, as were the chicken soft tacos (34 RMB). But what will keep us ordering from Munchie's is the chili, which matches tradition here by coming in four different combinations (adding beans, cheese, and onions are options) served over spaghetti and is as greasy and meaty as we remember.

Munchies also has a decent looking selection of familiar desserts, smoothies, and milkshakes, though we have yet to try any of them. We'll save it for next time when get the munchies for the chili. Too bad we usually get them after Munchies already closes.

Munchies - 974 Wuding Lu near Jiaozhou Lu (武定路974好近胶州路) Tel: 6218-4616, Hours: 10am-10pm.

Eric Hu is Shanghaiist's Food Editor. Email tips, recommendations, and news and gossip about Shanghai's food scene to food at shanghaiist.com.

China leads with national-best 39 gold medals

Maggie Rauch — 2008-08-19T11:15:25+07:00

After winning one gold medal and six total medals on Saturday and then seven golds and 14 total medals on Sunday, China is making a serious run at coming out of the Beijing games with the most gold and most medals overall. As of 11:00 pm Beijing time on Monday, China leads the Olympic gold quest with 39 gold medals, 17 more than Team USA's 22. In terms of overall medals, China trails the USA by five, with the Americans taking 72 compared to China's 67. China won four more gold medals Monday, plus a silver and a bronze, but all the talk was about the medal that China was hoping to win more than any other — the men's 110 meter hurdles. As reported here and across global media, Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang has withdrawn from the event in which he won gold during the Athens games four years ago. China has already far surpassed its 32-gold, 63-overall medal tally in 2004. In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, China had 28 golds and 59 medals overall. China is seeking to become the first nation other than the United States or former Soviet Union to top the gold medal standings since Germany in 1936. In 1984, the U.S. (aided by the Soviet led boycott) won 83 golds and 174 overall in Los Angeles. The U.S. won 242 medals overall in 1904 in St. Louis.

Video: Shanghai Moves

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-19T00:15:55+07:00

Peter Kirby of Daedalum Films captures the pulse and rhythm of the city in this mesmerising collage of images that he shot in downtown Shanghai and Qibao district, as well as the Shanghai Wildlife Park and zoo.

Beijing Olympics vs. the movies

Ada Fredelius — 2008-08-19T00:09:02+07:00

Has Shrek always borne a striking resemblance to Yao Ming? Or is it the other way around? These movie posters of Olympic athletes, (well, the Chinese team and Michael Phelps) were posted on Chinese web site Mop.com and brought to our attention by Chinasmack.

We think that the Hancock poster's text, which originally read: "There are heroes, there are superheroes, then there's Hancock" has gotten a fresh new ring to it: "In the Olympic games, there is a Chinese hero, and he is a superman". Mighty praise for Yao Ming but even he did not save China from a crushing defeat by Greece. In the meanwhile, the posters featuring hurdler Liu Xiang have lost a bit of their sheen with Liu pulling out of the Olympics.
There is an image gallery to this entry which you can view at Shanghaiist

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Sexy Beijing: Women in the Olympics

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-19T00:01:26+07:00

Shanghaiist's sports editor, and founding editor of ChinaSportsToday.com, Maggie Rauch, speaks to Sufei of Sexy Beijing about tennis star Zheng Jie and gender testing. Part 1 of the series can be found here.

Chinese basketballers lose tempers after a 91-77 defeat by Greece

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-18T22:43:58+07:00

China stumbled off to a poor first half in its match against Greece Monday evening, scoring only 24 points and missing every attempt at a three-pointer. In the third quarter, the team launched a strong comeback and managed to cut the deficit to 10 in the last three minutes, but Greece was simply too far ahead to beat. After the game, Yao Ming who led the team with 16 points to finish 91-77 was said to have walked past reporters without saying a word, shouting angrily at himself and punching his left hand as he left the tunnel. Speculation is that Yao was pissed off at being given 18 minutes to play by China coach Jonas Kazlauskas (from Lithuania), who when asked by the Wall Street Journal responded by saying:
"Yao is a fighter. He wants to play. He wants to fight, but he is a player and I am the coach... I am the one making these decisions . . . Yao should play for a long time, but today was not the time."
Team mate Li Nan opened the press conference after the match with a simple statement expressing his disappointment at losing the game, but the straw that broke the camel's back was a (really dumb) question by a Chinese journalist who asked him about how he felt about seeing Liu Xiang giving up on the 100-metre hurdles and limping out of the stadium. Li Nan shot back:
"Is that a basketball player? Does he play for our team? And I don't understand why you are asking a question about him."
before proceeding to remove his headphones, dropping them onto the table, and then storming out of the press conference.

Shocker: Liu Xiang pulls out of Beijing Olympics

Thalia Kwok — 2008-08-18T12:56:42+07:00

Former Olympic gold medalist hurdler and golden boy for millions of Chinese, Liu Xiang, limped off the track today, taking away with him the hopes of defending the gold and reclaiming his world record from Cuba's Dayron Robles.

Within minutes there were already 8000 Chinese commenting on the shocking turn of events. Some understanding, others, not so much. Perhaps among the angry ones are those who placed their bets on Liu and failed to pay heed to his hamstring injuries that were reported last month.

The star athlete took to the starting blocks with grimaces of pain etched across his face and reached back to slap his right achilles. NBC Olympics reported it as an achilles injury, with a report from Liu Xiang's coach last week claiming that the runner was "very close to his best form."

VIDEO UPDATE: For those outside of China who were unable to catch the five minute blip of airtime given to this by NBC, we certainly found it hard to believe that he was faking after watching this clip a few times...

VIDEO UPDATE (8.19.08): A collected Sun Haiping gives another press conference.

The original press conference moments after Liu Xiang pulled out

UPDATE (1:39 PM): Sun Haiping, Liu Xiang's coach, bawls his eyes out on national TV commiserating the feelings of millions of fans, and at least one CCTV reporter.
Followed quickly by a video montage of Liu Xiang set to Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman's "You and Me"

UPDATE (1:40 PM): GlobalVoices translates some of the initial reactions from the Chinese Fanfou community. Among these are the superstitious who attribute the injury to an Adidas ad curse that has taken down China's women's volleyball team, and football (soccer) player, Zhengzhi, and now Liu Xiang...

Others suggest conspiracy theories:

这一招实在是高
这几天我一直在想罗伯斯实力如何强劲,已经超过了刘翔,刘翔如何应对,如果输了(很大可能),商业价值必定大打折扣,人气肯定一落千丈,如果我是刘翔,该当如何?
谁知出现这种结果,这是刘翔所能做出并得到最大利益的结果,赢得了大家的同情,并保住了自己的人气,最重要的是,商业价值.
让人不能不佩服他身后的团队,实在是佩服(真心话,毕竟是同行)!

This really is a wonderful conspiracy!
These past few days I have been thinking constantly about how strong Robles is, much stronger than Liu Xiang. How can Liu deal with this? If he loses the race, which is highly probable, then his commercial value would of course plummet, as would his popularity. What would I do if I were him?
And what we have seen today is what Liu can do to achieve maximum profitability. He retained people’s compassion and his popularity, and most importantly, commercial value. I really have to admire the brains behind this operation.

UPDATE (2:20 PM): The Guardian picks up the story while trying to create a new trend in shortening those pesky Chinese names? They refer to coach Sun Haiping as "Haiping," and Liu Xiang, as "Xiang." We are skeptical whether this will catch on.

UPDATE (2:30 PM): Some observations from Chinese Twitterland shows the aftermath of Liu Xiang's sudden departure.

@celia1205 (in translation): "I was in the M photography area, very near Liu Xiang, when he entered the Bird's Nest the entire sea of people began shouting his welcome, when he left people quickly changed from amazement to anger. Before the event was even finished, many people left. This country really cannot stand to lose, it's terrible."

@buchimifan (in translation): There are people who are actually talking about getting a refund! Geez! When it was discovered that parts of the opening ceremony were fake no one talked about getting a refund, but when Liu Xiang withdraws which is completely normal within the realm of sports they start hollering for a refund! Is it that these people will not be satisfied until Liu Xiang has run himself into a total cripple before deciding they have gotten their money's worth?"

VIDEO UPDATE (8.19.08): Wall Street Journal interviews people on the streets of Beijing about how they feel about the Liu Xiang's withdrawal.

UPDATE (8.19.08): Various reactions from English language and foreign media...

Forget about long-term disability, what about the sponsors? New York Times speculates on how Liu Xiang's multi-million dollar endorsements will find a way to market upon misfortune or pull themselves out of the game as well.

Liu Xiang's former coach, Gu Baogang, rails against the China sports system which he claims destroys athletes while they are still in their prime.

Chinese netizens continue to flood the forums and BBSs with their reactions, but the overwhelming majority are sympathizers.

So much for insurance... Liu Xiang's 100 million RMB policy with Ping An Insurance does not cover the injury that has taken him out of the Olympics.

Addendum: Thanks to reader Michael Darragh for pointing out the fact that Liu Xiang is not actually sponsored by Adidas. He endorses Nike.

Youngsters representing the 56 Chinese ethnic groups were fake too?

Kenneth Tan — 2008-08-18T03:15:01+07:00

The fireworks were edited in, the young girl was just lip-syncing, and in the third case of misrepresentation from the Olympic opening ceremony, the 56 children representing China's 56 ethnic groups have also been found to be mostly Han Chinese children dressed up to represent the minorities. This admission was first made by Yuan Zhifeng, deputy director of Galaxy Children's Art Troupe, which oversaw that segment of the programme, to the Asian Wall Street Journal.

The multimedia fireworks we can accept, and as for the lip-syncing, even the best of singers are guilty of it from time to time, but fake children from ethnic minorities to portray a vision of a harmonious utopia to an international audience at an event like the Olympics? That's just kinda lame.

Equally unimpressive was the feeble attempt by Wang Wei, executive vice-president of BOCOG, to downplay the fakery:
"Some performers were dressed in ethnic costumes, which are very normal in mainland performances. There is nothing special..."

"I don't know the concrete details and where the children are from. China has such a tradition in art performance [where] you can wear costumes of minority groups.

"As long as there is a need, performers will wear the costumes to signify people's friendship and happiness."
Seriously, creative director Zhang Yimou should have realised that even if this was standard practice across China and acceptable to local audiences who don't typically question what they see, we aren't doing a movie production here.

Related links:
The Opposite End of China: Crackdown on fake female minority terrorists
AFP: 'Ethnic minority' children at Olympics ceremony were fake: report

China wins the first women's table tennis team event

Dedric Lam — 2008-08-18T02:28:14+07:00

A momentous day for both Chinese and Singaporean table tennis. China won three matches to zero in the finals of the first ever womens table tennis team event. Consisting of the best of five matches, China won the first three matches conceding only two games to Singapore.

Wang Nan of China lost the opening game of the first singles final to Feng Tianwei of Singapore but then proceed to lock Feng out to win three games to one. Zhang Yining produced a similar result, beating Li Jiawei three games to one.

The deciding double match of Guo Yue and Zhang Yining started shakily but then took the first game from behind to dominate beat Wang Yuegu and Li Jiawei three games to nil.

This game marks a historic moment for both nations as China is the first country to win this new team table tennis event. The silver medal won by Singapore is also the first medal won by the island nation since 1960 and the first ever medal since gaining full independence in 1965.

There is however some controversy about the Singaporean team as all three members originally hail from China. Li Jiawei, the most experienced of the Singapore team is originally from Beijing and immigrated to Singapore in 1999. Wang Yuegu is originally from Henan and Feng Tianwei is originally from Heilongjiang, and only became a Singapore citizen this year. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his National Day address today (that was postponed so as not to clash with the table tennis) justified this by saying that Singapore with a population of one three hundredth of China and a declining population must rely on foreign talent to grow.

To see a twitcast of the three games click here

Related link
WSJ Blogs: Singapore's medal-round finish sparks a party