Watching the buildup to the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on CCTV-5/Olympics, I remember my excitement watching the Olympics as a kid, and my cynicism disappears. Switching to CCTV-1, some of my cynicism returns. But then I switch back to CCTV-5.
Author Archives: John
Artistic Gymnastics
In Chinese, Artistic Gymnastics (the kind Mary-Lou Rhetton competed in) is called 竞技体æ“, which means something like “Competitive Skills Gymnastics”. Rhythmic Gymnastics (the kind with the balls and the flags) is called 艺术体æ“, which means “Artistic Gymnastics”. That’s confusing.
“Evaporation”
I find it amusing when people describe the smog in Beijing as “evaporation“, and not pollution. Of course, in this case the guy doing the describing is the chairman of the IOC medical commission, and he probably knows more about the issue than I do, but I still find it amusing. The most important quote […]
Two Weeks in Shanghai
Things I Like About Shanghai The general feeling of the city. (Vague, I know.) Lots of fruit stands. The good selection of English books at the airport. The Element Fruit restaurant on the arrival level of the domestic terminal at the airport. Things I Don’t Like About Shanghai 1 RMB coins that don’t fit in […]
50-cent Propagandists?
We’ve known it was going to happen for a long time, but it’s still a big deal that China now has more Internet users than the United States. English speakers should remember that most of the world doesn’t speak English, and that most of the Internet won’t be in English, either. One effect the Internet […]
Tickets!
I got back from Shanghai late last night and took a cab home from the airport. When we got to our exit off of the fifth ring road, there was a policeman there blocking it. I told him that I lived in the area, and wanted to go home. He told me that next time […]
Olympic Meltdown?
Kenneth Tan posts on Shanghaiist about how hotels are lowering their rates in Beijing during the Olympics because the expected influx of tourists doesn’t appear to be materializing. We were actually one of the apartment owners hoping to cash in on the Olympics. I don’t think we were being greedy–it was only worth it to […]
Olympics Obervations
The Olympics have been in the air for the last six years in Beijing, but over the last week or so it’s finally hit everyone that we’re less than a month away. It seems like just yesterday that the ubiquitous countdown clocks were showing several hundred days, and now they’re down to less than 20! […]
Sculpting and Time and The Bridge
The last time I wondered about an untold story (the story behind New Beijing, Great Olympics and New Beijing, New Olympics), I randomly ran across a told version in Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones (a great book, maybe more on that later). Right now I’m sitting in the Wudaokou Sculpting in Time cafe wondering about another […]
Bookmarks
I’ve spent the last five days on the road doing promotional lectures for New Channel. We usually speak to university students, hoping that they will come to Beijing and take IELTS or TOEFL classes during the summer break, but last night in Changsha we spoke to 800 elementary school students. They were fourth, fifth and […]