China Segment

I’m actually pretty disappointed with the coverage of the Beijing Olympics in China. I’ve been watching them on the Chinese stations, thankful that my Chinese has progressed enough in the last four years to be able to understand a heck of a lot more than during Athens. However, despite a decent amount of [...]

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One of the many casualties for the Olympics is fun. Here in Shanghai, many of the less desirable elements of big-city life (fake DVD stores, ‘pink light shops’, etc.) have been closed down for the Olympics. But also added to the list are the closing down of the (relatively) honest shops in the [...]

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The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Games just wrapped up a couple hours ago. It’s great to finally get the whole thing started. Odd to think that in just a couple of weeks it’ll be all over - a city and country awash with bitter sweet thoughts of having hosted a magnificent Games, [...]

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Well, I live in China, and since winning matters, here are my predictions for the 2008 Summer Olympics, starting with winners.
The United States will win the most medals at these Games. That is the way that we measure success in Canada and the U.S., and probably in many other countries like Russia, Germany, France, [...]

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China’s got Olympic fever, so you’ll hear a lot of encouragement from its fans any chance they get to root for the home team. One of their favorite expressions is 加油 jia you, which happens to be on my all-time most annoying list.
Literally translated as ‘add oil’, you could kind of compare [...]

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This is how fucked up China is right now.
The first two news stories on tonight’s prime time news on 东方电视台 (Oriental TV Channel):
A) a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 2:28 p.m. local time, 90 kilometers northwest of Chengdu, one of China’s largest cities, and was felt throughout almost the entire country. Surely entire villages [...]

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Dear China,
You’re not alone. There are always protesters at the Olympics. I’m sure that won’t make you feel much better about it, but what can I tell you - that’s life as a member of the world community.
Canada, yes even quiet, nice, Canada is planning for protests during the Winter Olympics in 2010. [...]

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Whenever a customer or potential customer walks into a store, restaurant, food court or other establishment in China, the local staff are instructed to say 欢迎光临 (huanying guanglin, welcome). Which naturally is a good, friendly way to greet people.
Or so it would seem.
Unfortunately, 欢迎光临 is one of the most awful sounding phrases I’ve ever heard. [...]

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