Chinese soccer roars in 9-0 whitewash (People's Daily) (Mar 10)
The scandal-hit Chinese soccer roared like a lion on Tuesday as Chinese Super League runners-up Changchun Yatai whitewashed Indonesian champions Persik Kediri 9-0 at home in the AFC Champions League Group F second round clash. Furthermore, the 2009 Chinese Super League champions Beijing Guoan hammered Japanese J-League runners-up Kawasaki Frontale 3-1 in Japan on the same day, breaking the jinx ...


Susan Brownell on Beijing’s goals for the Games (Feb 3)
One of my favorite China hands, Professor Susan Brownell – quite possibly the most knowledgeable scholar out there on China’s sports culture and legacy – presented a paper last week at the University of Southern California on Beijing’s goals for the 2008 Olympics. Reproduced in part at the China Beat blog, she argues that there was no specific plan to use the Olympics as a public-relations tool for China to improve relations with the outside world; rather, it was Beijing’s goal to strengthen the confidence of its own people. The Telegraph (UK) quotes Brownell’s work in a piece titled “China didn’t care what you thought of the Beijing Olympics,” but having read the portion of Brownell’s paper that is available online, that feels like a harsher-than-necessary sound bite. In so many ways, China is just different than what many in the West expect it to be – a cultural difference that will keep China scholars busy for a long time to come. In any case, having been a witness to the 2008 Ga...


Yao meets students from Sichuan in New York (Jan 27)
George Vescey of the New York Times was there. One NBA Star and 150 Bridges to Sichuan (NY Times, January 26) That’s two Vescey columns in three CSB posts that have caught my attention for their excellence. This is a great snapshot of Yao’s relationship with his homeland and his generosity – and a great piece of sports writing as well.


Lessons for London from the Beijing Olympics (Nov 1)
This is one of the final posts on the Beijing Olympics Blog – the experiment is coming to an end, and to be honest, since getting back from China Bob has found it hard to summon up the time and enthusiasm to keep posting. To sign off it’s time to review the Beijing Olympics and [...]


Relaxed Press Freedoms Pass With The Beijing Games (Sep 22)
Put in place prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and due to end roughly a month after the Paralympics, the measures to afford greater independence to foreign reporters in China are about three weeks from ending. Now there is speculation about whether these freedoms will continue at all, or whether the rules will return to [...]


Beijing Bids Goodbye To The Paralympians (Sep 18)
The Beijing Paralympics wrapped up yesterday with yet another spectacular ceremony at the wonderful Bird’s Nest stadium giving delirious athletes a chance to say goodbye after an extremely successful Games. Sounds like a similar story to four weeks ago when the Olympics ended on a high – we were even treated to another show of [...]


Bye Bye Beijing (Aug 29)
The Olympics are over, and most of the athletes have returned home to be paraded in front of adoring crowds. Now it is Bob’s turn to do the same (minus the crowds), back in Shanghai again now and the UK tomorrow. However this is not the end of the events in Beijing, or the Beijing Olympics [...]


Olympic Security – Knives, bombs and the Welsh Dragon (Aug 26)
Queuing up to pass through one of the many security check points at the Olympics on one occasion there was a recording being played over the PA system: “Flags of non-participating countries and regions, and sharp objects are not permitted into the Olympic Green”. At first this seemed like a strange combination – why should sporting [...]


Olympic Village opens in Beijing (Mar 21)
The Olympic Village in Beijing is now open, well ahead of the upcoming Summer Games. Anyone who has visited say it is a delight and environmentally friendly design although, sadly, the loos are Asian rather than Western style. Apart from that the technology could be a model for future residential developments across China. These apartments in [...]


Air pollution forces star to pull out of Olympic marathon (Mar 19)
The world record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, said he still intended to participate in the 10,000 meters but could not run in the 26-mile, 385-yard (42.2km) marathon. Gebrselassie, 34, who holds the world marathon record and two Olympic titles for the 10,000 meters, suffers from asthma. He said, ‘The pollution in China is a threat to [...]