The Story
Pastor/Professor Eddie Romero came to Beijing to “speak for those who can’t speak for themselves,” i.e. imprisoned dissidents Hu Jia or Shi Tao and others. He did some guerilla mural painting in a few Beijing hotel rooms, which is pretty ballsy for sure. Check out one of his videos below. Lets be thankful that he’s Christian, otherwise he might have had dynamite strapped to his chest.
Well, they’re over. With the barbarian hordes headed home and 1.3 billion Chinese looking around asking “what now?” - here are a couple links to some amazing moments captured on film during the course of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The first is a slick collection from the New York Times complete with a bit of audio commentary, the second is a random collection of Olympic images (warning butts and boobies abound) from the Games.
If ever an argument needed to be made for watching less TV, the groups of Western “Free Tibet” protesters that have snuck in to China are it.
There’s a four-page article running on the Washington Post’s site which explains in detail the mission of a group funded by Students for a Free Tibet (cue Mission Impossible music - or that 24 countdown tone).
I mean, I respect that these folks want to stand up for a cause they feel is very important. I admire that they travelled to an unknown land and risked unknown punishments to try and get their voice heard - but it’s hard to read about their …
The streets are clean, the people are smiling, the transportation is free and the staff is able and willing to answer any and all questions. Is this Beijing or Disneyland?
The city cannot be compared to any other city in Mainland China. All construction has stopped for the games which not only helps eliminate some dust in the air but more importantly cleans up the noise pollution of drills and jack hammers that has become part of daily life in China.
Floating around on the internet right now is a rare example of Chinese self-deprecating humor. It’s a parody of the Beijing Welcomes You song, which makes fun of the poor performance of the Chinese men’s soccer team. It’s called 国足欢迎你 or the National Soccer team Welcomes You, and particularly funny is how they take “our door is open” and turn it into “our goal is wide open.” Even the infamous and incredibly annoying Furong Jiejie has joined the fun.
There’s a certain admirable maturity in being able to laugh about your misfortunes, and I think whoever wrote this song should be bought a few beers. Something to catch his falling tears at least. I don’t suppose I can say much else about this, as Canada’s men’s soccer team is even worse… Hell, we don’t even have a medal yet.
Here’s a video of the song with the lyrics below.
Ba ba ba - as the crowds of Olympic spectators herd themselves into their seats for the opening ceremonies, the eights are everywhere.
As, by now, everyone’s likely aware - “eight” is an auspicious number in Chinese culture and it’s no coincidence that The Games are starting at 8:08:08 pm on 08/08/2008. The reason for this is that 8, 八 in Chinese, is pronounced bā - which is somewhat similar to the pronunciation of 发/fā, meaning “prosper” or “wealth”.
Drivers pay for license plates with 8s in them, businesses scramble to get lots of 8s in their phone numbers, couples wait to marry on days and times with 8s in them… it’s little surprise that the biggest …
Only two days until the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and with all the cynicism floating around - we here at Lost Laowai needed a little somethin’ somethin’ to … ahem… raise our Olympic spirits. Thanks to ChineseTools.eu for helping us out. Observant readers will remember we featured these girls previously as well.
Three days to go, the country is primed, factories temporarily closed, cars off the roads, the algea invasion temporarily stymied, battalions of garbage collectors pulled back from the urban front-line, peddlers of counterfeit goods pushed further underground, city streets beautified, foreign media covering China like they just found out it’s there, the delegations of diplomats and leaders on their way to pay tribute to the new Chinese empire of bling and what does it all mean?
A coming out party for a nation that boasts 5000 years of history and more skeletons in its closet than there are teeth-marked discarded wooden skewers outside the barbecue place at 3 AM？Who’s coming out, the minority groups, the political prisoners, the AIDS activists, …
It was announced recently that three Beijing parks, miles away from the Olympic events, will be reserved as areas where people can “protest” during the Olympics.
Of course, to protest, you’ll have to apply five days in advance and hope your cause isn’t considered, the rather ubiquitous, “against national interests” (anyone wishing to raise a sign against the domestic policies of Azerbaijan are welcome).
The decision to allow the Disney-flavoured protests comes from the on going pressure the global community has put on China because the Games aren’t as open as they were promised to be.
Liu Shaowu, security chief for the BOC, explained, “Assembling to march and protest is …
Well, everyone and their grandma is calling the 2008 Beijing Olympics China’s coming out party, and they’ve just been given the biggest reason yet, as it doesn’t get any gayer than this.
Sorry, I don’t mean to offend or misrepresent the gay community, <em>Queer Eye</em> teaches us you all have far more fashion sense than this.
This fashion faux pas of the century (and we’re still early into it) is China’s official Olympic opening ceremony uniform.
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