Stories about China from August, 2008
China: Olympics as a Learning Experience
Nimrod from the Fool's mountain points out that everyone should try to learn from the Beijing Olympics lesson.
China: Brain Damaged Netizen Syndrome
WangXiaofeng listed out 13 symptoms for indicating whether a netizen is suffered from brain damage. The symptoms include a compulsion to read and comment posts even they don't really understand the texts; there is only right and wrong in their world view, and of course they are always on the...
China: Amazing Olympics recap photos
“Wow,” says Twitter user @frankyu, retweeting @PatrickSearle: “Amazing set of Olympic pics: http://stuff.thdesign.be/forum/varia/OS.html.” Note, though, that nudity can be seen there.
China: Games over
Well we couldn't watch it on YouTube, but there was Twitter so we know the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony involved [note: links to profanity] some sort of [profanity] hot-pot tower of babel that spiderman climbed up…and we heard something about ants and a transformer bus. Anyway, we're very thankful we...
Arabeyes: The Olympics, Pride, Equality and Hope
Millions around the world were glued to their television screens watching their favourite athletes at this year's Beijing Olympics, which just closed. What did Arab bloggers have to say about the world's premier sporting event and their country teams? Following are a few reactions.
Taiwan: Hopes in democracy in the midst of corruption scandal
In the last two weeks, the Taiwan mainstream media has been occupied with the corruption scandal of the former president, Chen Shiu-Bian. According to the news report, a Swiss bank has spotted a large sum of suspected money (up to a billion Taiwan yuan) transfered from Taiwan to Switzerland and...
China: Re-education through labor sentence for two elderly protesters
The closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics draws near, and while Chinese media are unable to report on scandals such as this that have dominated foreign media headlines, it is those foreign media reports which have given Chinese netizens plenty to chew over.
Bahrain: Eyes on Ruqaya Al Ghasra
She may have placed sixth in the qualifying heats and her dreams of becoming the first Gulf Arab woman to run in an Olympic final may be dashed, but Bahrain's Golden runner Ruqaya Al Ghasra has sure created a stir online. A rough start meant that Ghasra, who was Bahrain's flag bearer at the opening ceremony, was eliminated from the women's 200 metres race - but for tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim women - and men - out there, running her heart out fully covered has brought her more than just gold medals.
China: Beijing can't find itself on Google News
They haven't been call the SchizOlympics for nothing (that piece is serious though, and worth a second read), and now Google News is behaving oddly; read all about it at Danwei: “The absence of China from news searches does not appear to be a Net Nanny phenomenon or at least...
China: iTunes is blocked and it's Apple's fault
Silicon Hutong blogger David Wolf notes that the iTunes Music Store is now blocked in China, assumes this was due to the release on iTunes of a Tibetan music album, assumes Apple chose to release it during the Olympics as an act of “passive-aggressive panda-punching,” and then advises Apple choose...
South Korea: Racism
Ask a Korean! discusses about the different stands in racism by using the Spanish basketball players’ photo.
China: Protesters’ Trap
Two 80 years old protesters was sent to labour education camp as they insisted to demonstrate in the Olympic protest area. Zhongoutese was very angry and said that the Olympic protest area was a trap for dissents.
China: Victims of Sport
Xueyong traced the fate of two sportswomen, Guo ping and Zhou Chun-Lai, both were medal carriers and suffered from hardship after their retirement in early age. According to statistic, 40% of the retired sportsman couldn't find a second job.
China: He Kexin and “babygate”
Imagethief picks up the debate on the age issue of He Kexin, the golden girl of Chinese gymnastics, and notices a cold-war double standard in some of the mainstream media report with a story plot of Ours=plucky, heroic achievers. Theirs=manufactured robots/slaves/dopers.
China: Athletes / Soldiers
Laowiseass noticed Chinese state-run media had applied a troops-athletes metaphor in their report about Olympic victory. The blogger also pointed out that many Chinese regard the soldier-like training of athletes as universal normal practice.
China: Where the world's e-waste goes
Academic-blogger Bill Chameides at The Huffington Post looks at the issue of e-waste in China, noting that 70% of it worldwide ends up there: “Even though the Chinese government has banned the importation of e-waste, the stuff continues to find its way in.”
Japan and China: Angry ‘Olympic Ojisan’ leaves Beijing
James from Japan Probe highlights the mainstream media reports about the early departure of Olympic super fan, 82-years old “Olympic Ojisan”.
China: Only Gold Medal Matters?
Luqiu Luwei from my1510 criticizes the Chinese mainstream media for giving too much attention to the gold medal winners as if other medal winners or participants haven't been performing good enough to be proud of.
China: Hua Guofeng
DANWEI has a sum up on mainstream report and blogosphere commentary on the passing away of old communist leader Hua Guofeng.
China: Free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying!
On the arrest and sentence to one year of re-education labor for housing activists Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying, aged 79 and 77 respectively, David Seth at Daily Kos writes: We need to call on China to free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying, and everyone else they are holding to...
China: Sportswear Sponsor
Xueyong noticed that Liu Xiang's withdrawal from Olympics has resulted in the loss of 3 billion yuan for his sportswear sponsors. The blogger pointed out that the focus on one or two sport stars reflected that the development of sport in China is driven from the top, not from public...