Today’s NYT has a story about the Beijing Silk Market and the struggles between big names brands and the pirates that knock-em off and slang em to tourists. I was at the silk market every day last summer during the Olympics. The big brand names do have a point: China does need to “graduate from […]
Olympics
The Security Establishment
Now that I have finished my stint in a semi-corporate setting in a security company, i can let you know a little bit about how things work. These companies do business here with the permssion of the Chinese government. This means that they are under the constant supervision of the Public Security Bureau. As such, […]
Dont Believe the Hype
So the Games are over and the Western media is tapping into the fear the American nation has for China’s rise. Its all smoke and mirrors, people. America is in the doldrums because the media tells us we are; China is gonna take over the planet because the media tells us they are. The reality […]
Penultimate Day: A couple pics
I will have a few pics here … i lost my camera and never really bought a new one. I know thats the main thing this blog lacks — besides wit — so i will do my best in the future to have some images. so for now:
Day 15 – Ending with a Bang
Today was quite a day. I watched Cuba whup up on the US in the baseball semifinal and then headed to a spa to wash my stankin sweaty body and watch the US whup up on Argentina in basketball. On the way to the baseball game, i shouted out GO USA! and told jokes in […]
Day ?? – Big Day for team finals
The last two days have been pretty fun, but i have not been able to watch anything. The women’s beach volleyball, men’s volleyball, water polo, softball, the track and field .. i get it offa blogs or Chinese TV. My ticket magic has run out. I have tix to the US-Cuba baseball semifinal tomorrow, but […]
And of course: Dashed Hopes
Liu Xiang is injured and will not compete. He has been injured since at least May, when he had his last competition. In China, an athlete is property of the State and to a lesser extent the People. Perhaps Liu has had enough of being a slave to the system. Perhaps he wants to walk […]
Days 9, 10 and 11 … The Hustle Eclipsed
Its becoming somewhat of a blur for me these days, i had to ask if today was Day 12 or what. I am writing on the 12th day at noon, about the last three days. I suppose the theme of the past few days has been the death of the hustle. The scalpers are gone […]
And of course: the Man Fish
I bet this dude puffs mad herb. Now, if we find out that he does, will he be stripped for doping? “Once you reach the plateau, it becomes the norm.”
Days 7, 8 and going on 9 … Sleep Deprived
The last few days I have been running on fumes a bit. And for those of you who have done that, it means alternating between falling asleep while someone talks to you and being unable to shut your mouth at odd hours of the night. The Chinese look to have the Gold Medal count locked […]
Day 6 – The Calm Before the Storm
The second week is just around the corner and I felt the lull today. Indeed, the preliminaries and qualifying rounds are almost over. The Chinese blitz on the gold medals will have its Dunkirk in a couple days when athletics begins and “their” sports come to a close. On ticket sales, one noticed a slight […]
Day 5 – I Love China
What a difference a day makes. Today I went and watched the China-Spain B-Ball game and it was off the chains. The big difference between yesterday’s tennis and today’s hoops was that the Chinese know and love hoops. The guys in front of me loved Clyde “the Glide” Drexler and the old man in back […]
Day 4 – Chaos and Order
Welcome to China ya’ll. Today started off fine, I woke up and went and did some gong fu with my man Shifu Li Chuan cuz he’s back in town and we showed Yves and a few of his Dutch partners some moves. While chillin with Yves in his apt later, I realized I did not […]
Day 3 – Dank and Dreary … USA whoops China in B-Ball
Today I saw a one armed Cockney Englishman marching through the crowds around the water cube trying to sell swimming tix for 2000k US. The hustle continues … I’m getting deeper into the tix biz and its fun. Today it was hazy and dark all day and then it started to rain at about 4pm […]
Day 2 – The Hustleman
Yeah its always the same wherever I go. i become Red from the Shawshank Redemption. I am now in the ticket business and it is quite fruitful. I will be able to see beach volleyball, tennis, baseball, some basketball (no USA yet) and some girls field hockey. Ya’ll need tickets? holla at me. Ya’ll got […]
Hu Jintao Steps Up
It is a beautiful morning here in Beijing. The sun is blinding white, reminding me of a graveyard shift I pulled in Alaska once. We were driving up to Ketchikan from Bellingham (on a fishing boat) and I watched the sun come up while passing through one of the countless channels between the countless islands […]
Moral Authority?
Its not hard to imagine how China manages to get away with being one of the more brazenly oppressive nations to hold the Olympics in recent times. The USSR was able to do so, but only with half the world boycotting and in 1936, Nazi Germany’s Olympics were held before boycotts were widely used as […]
What did you think was gonna happen?
The fools of the world who believed Chairman Rogge and the Chinese BOCOG are to blame for their foolishness. There are several stories out there: The frog and scorpion, the fool and the snake … whoever thought that the Games would change the nature of the snake, was probably dreaming of dragons …
Down in Kokomo
Will the damn Games just start already … All day I got BBC hollerin about censorship, human rights and nationalism in one ear and CCTV hollerin about the glory, sacrifice, achievements and bursting pride of the Chinese nation in the other ear. In the middle, i compile reports. I tell Prof. Han to find the […]
The good news is
That the Chinese are ready to do this. Just Imagine: Your dad grew up smilin if he got some pork in his rice bowl.Your granddad grew up smilin if he got to shoot the invader that raped his village You are smilin cuz pork is in everyone’s bowl. No one dares invade. You got access […]
busy day
In this small blurb about a photo that made it into a tabloid about the Tiananmen protests in 1989, we see another example of the many people these days who don’t know about what happened and frankly don’t care, yet face the consequences for their ignorance. I wrote before about a couple of copy editors […]
My Worm Ridden Hound named “Dog”
I am amazed at how rumors fly around this country. its a thing of beauty to watch a story go from one part of the nation to another — at the ground level — finally coming to a feather light landing as an encapsulation of some human condition within a four-character phrase. The phrase dutifully […]
Feelin for Liu Xiang and Obama
Yeah I been criticizing Obama a lot here, I guess its cuz I was so excited and inspired by his nomination run and then to see him do the necessary shuck and jive towards the center of American politics made me lose my fiery optimism. But there is a quote in this here tale that […]
Chicken Grease
Played cards with the boys last night and it was good “craic.” I think that’s how you spell the Irish version — the lone Irishman at the spot won all the damn money, even though at the end all he could spit out were mumbles and curses, followed by a bellowed “Fiiive!” — referring to […]
A Smoggy day in Beijing
There is a situation going on right now at east gate in Beijing. About 100 people and are in the area. The issues is with the demolition of several apartment blocks to make way for a park. The residents have made a “last stand” in front of the last building. Anytime people actually get hifey […]
Picture me Laughing
china gives peeps designated “arrest me” zones to do their thing. “Chinese people know better than to go demonstrate in a {issue} zone during the Olympics, except maybe a few people with nothing to lose,” he said. “They know the risk of retribution is very high.” He added: “It is not a step toward allowing […]
Aint Nothing Changed
Things is hectic in this piece … for real. after the K’ming bombings the government made a few changes to security that are putting a crimp in everyone’s style. In the Metro lines the only security they have are cadres of fussy old women — the same people who yell at bicycles that cross the […]
Which sky will it be?
views from my window.
like i said, communicate
Here is a story that is pretty interesting, in that it shows the polarized views of this country that people have. I am sure that the woman in the story did not have the right documents. She either did not register, was never registered, had a wrong visa or some other glitch that she probably […]
No Fun Olympics
Check out my no-fun dork shoes: China’s “top-down” approach to security in the Olympics guarantees that there will be very little mirthful exchanges between the people (in public places at least) and the Games here will be … well … all business. 2am curfew. anti-drunken partying behavior by the coppers. random security checks. jumpy cops […]
Beijing 2008
I am finally in Beijing. After several months of talking about it and changes to the plan on a weekly basis, I am now officially part of the whole “one world one dream” experience in Beijing. Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun shone all day, the sky was blue and white lazy clouds hung […]
Laughs
(snicker snicker) (cackle cackle)
Surprise! Beijing is a polluted city!
Sigh. The truth the world has refused to confront always comes out in the end, be it war for oil, Bush is a fool, we need alternative energy or China is polluted … it funny how long it takes before people admit the truth to themselves. I think it takes at least three large stories […]
The elephant in my bathroom
how silly we humans be. Sports are and have been one of the ultimate political experiences for societies since the dawn of the ball. A discus tossing match between a Spartan and an Athenian was the grand catharsis of the day. A football match between Turkey and Germany is passionate, bloody and emotional because it […]
2008 Olympics: For Chinese only!
The visa situation in China is getting more and more frustrating for foreigners trying to do anything here. How to extend or wiggle one’s way into a longer stay burrows itself into every conversation at least once or twice these days. If you have a Z-Working visa and want to extend it, you must leave […]
it just keeps gettin thicker
ya’ll don’t even know. I went to Hanyuan the other day and just got back in the Du. I was planning on staying a month there, but things didn’t work out that way. On the way to Hanyuan I got a call from my man Philly in Beijing and he said: “yo, that security job […]
Woe unto the Enemies of the State
Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race…Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never.– Rev. William Sloane Coffin Today at 2:28pm, the entire Chinese nation stood at attention for three minutes to remember the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake. Today’s edition of the […]
We felt it comin …
My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: “I feel like the world is shifting” if ya’ll check the first few lines of my post “The Illusion of Coincidence” you’ll see that there was something in the air … just to embellish a bit: yesterday was Buddha’s birthday. The plates that caused this earthquake […]
HK Torch Relay
here is a column i wrote for Antiwar.com that will not get published: On Friday the torch arrives in Hong Kong. Demonstrators from around the world are arriving ahead of time to take advantage of this opportunity: after Hong Kong the flame will be traveling through Mainland China, where security will be extremely tight. This […]
Rationalism is Bleak
Today has been another magnificent day in Chengdu. I am sitting in the Bookworm, a fine place to ease back and read/write be smart with myself and I am using my OWN computer. For the past three weeks, I have been using any computer I could because I lost my damn power source while up […]
Its goin down
it has struck me — and perhaps not only me — how intense things are becoming this year. The race in the US between the two democrats threatens to tire everyone out by the time the real election arrives and the protests in China threaten to cast a pallor over the games months before they […]
what are they thinkin?
I wrote a column a ways back about the “real China” and how the world would get a glimpse of it this summer during the Olympics. We laowai are already getting a taste. Visas are a constant source of anxiety. Not nearly as bad as it is in the US for my homies from India […]
faded
I am just a few short miles from Aba, where the Tibetans burned down a police station last week. Since that incident it has been mostly quiet. This is a big tourist area and the troubles do not seem to have affected business much. Busloads of Cantonese rumble through daily, honking, yapping and taking funny […]
Aint nothin special bout me
i walked back to my house tonight around 2am and i live near the Tibetan district of town. there were police cars on every block with running motors and flashing lights. the entire neighborhood is surrounded and infiltrated. the only things moving were the cops fingers typing out a lazy message to his girl and […]
Qiangba Puncog must hang
The day after the deadline and people here in China are talking about the protests, both my Laowai homies and my Chinese homies. It is safe to say that foreigners and Chinese disagree 100% on the Tibet issue. An article in the NYT today talks about the long simmering hatred that has finally boiled over. […]