The New York Times today reports that pole dancing exercise classes have become a hit with young women in metropolitan areas of China, with the most successful studio planning to expand to 11 locations by the end of next year.
Unfortunately, this new craze comes too late to be included as one of China’s native sports [...]
The big news lately has around the “misrepresentations” apparently undertaken by the organizers to make the lavish Olympic opening ceremony as perfect as possible. The iconic scene where a young girl sang “Ode to the Motherland” (歌唱祖国) was, apparently, dubbed with the voice of another, less attractive girl. A fireworks show of footprints leading up [...]
With the Olympics in full gear things are happening at rapid fire speed in China. Rather than track new things occurring, then, Dongcha thought it might be appropriate to give updates on a few topics from the last few weeks.
First, the Uyghurs. Homemade explosives killed 11 in hotels, supermarkets and government offices in the town [...]
After many months of having to endure journalism that all follows the same emerging-superpower-showcases-development-with-Olympic-games-but- still-must-struggle-with-human-rights-and-environmental-issues line, the Olympics finally launched last night. It seems that, except for thousands of Western journalists who were defining their careers around the reporting line given above (what an angle!), just about everybody can finally let out a sigh of [...]
Bush, trying to appease stateside critics of his decision to attend the 2008 Olympics despite China’s still-poor human rights record, gave a speech in Bangkok today criticizing China:
Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions. Yet change will arrive. And it will be [...]
ExpressIndia reports that table tennis is losing its appeal for China’s younger generation, which is increasing becoming interested in basketball.
The reasons for the shift are the usual culprits. Ping pong is an individualized, stand-in-place sport, while basketball is played with a team on a court, providing opportunities for strategy, sweaty bodies, showmanship and other things [...]
The following article was brought up in a forum:
As they eagerly await the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese people express extraordinary levels of satisfaction with the way things are going in their country and with their nation’s economy. With more than eight-in-ten having a positive view of both, China ranks number one among 24 countries on [...]
Big news on the internet wires is about the failure of Beijing’s much-touted pollution controls and the more extreme measures government is planning on introducing, if the pollution does not dissipate in the coming days. These measures include further vehicular restrictions in Beijing itself, and expanding the current restrictions to the entire province of Hebei [...]
News reports have surfaced that Tian Liang 田亮, a diver who won gold and bronze medals at the Athen’s 2004 Olympics, will not be included on China’s 2008 team. According to China Daily, the government’s English-language mouthpiece, Tian was removed from the national diving team in 2005 “for violating state sport regulations and taking [...]
Scuffles broke out and at least one person fainted within the mile-long line that occurred to secure an Olympic ticket in the last round of tickets to be sold to the public. According the Bloomberg.com:
“Things got rough at 4 a.m. and a fight broke out,” said Gao, a 34-year-old real estate agent, in an interview. [...]