Nice Story

I saw a really nice story on tv yesterday.

The Chinese womens field hockey team won the silver medal, their first ever medal, and their head coach is actually a Korean. He's been coaching the chinese team for the past 9 years, and has learned to speak pretty decent Chinese. His wife and three children live with him in Beijing. He is really proud of his team, and has decided to retire after winning the silver medal. Despite retiring, he decided he won't be returning to Korea. Two of his children go to university in Beijing, and the other one goes to middle school in Beijing, and he enjoys his life in China very much. I really enjoyed seeing the passion and bond he shares with his players, celebrating birthdays, celebrating wins, giving lectures after losses. Kim Chang Back is his name. Also, his annual salary is just $45,000, but he donated $15,000 of his own money to the Chinese earthquake relief cause.

Shawn Johnson also appeared on China's top talk show with the Chinese gymnastics team as well. It was a cute little show. Shawn was really sweet, and the audience and her Chinese opponents really loved her. I think she's a stark contrast from the scary and highly competitive Nastia Liukin, who wasn't even invited despite winning all around gold. Johnson spoke whatever Chinese she learned, congratulated the Chinese gymnasts, and talked about her own interests and hobbies. I think the audience and Chinese gymnasts and coached really admired her. Despite looking like a tiny 16 year old girl, she has a lot of inner strength and I think the Chinese gold medal team even felt that and looked up to her.

I actually had the ticket to see the men's 110m hurdles final, which is auctioning for as much as 20,000 rmb in China. Unfortunately, Liu Xiang, the 2004 gold medalist, was injured and could not compete. It's a bit dissapointing to have the most desired ticket of the olympics and have it go to waste.

I haven't been able to watch NBC. I love NBC olympic coverage, but I heard this year all it's been is politically biased coverage and lots of whining. I think that's pretty lame.

At one of the track events I went to, an elderly late sat next to me and talking to me a lot. She asked me how's American peoples impressions of China, and I said it's good. She also asked me "why do so many Americans like to criticize Chinese human rights?" and I didn't know how to respond, so i said "I don't know." There's lots of places I'd like to see Chinese improve upon, and I think i'm as passionate about it as anybody out there, but I think the Chinese feel that they do not need others telling them that their lives are messed up because they have no civil rights. I think they feel if their lives we're as freedomless as Americans say it is, the Chinese would probably be the first ones to notice.

Olympic Observations

Today, I went to see my first olympic competition live at the National Aquatics Center, which was really awesome. I watched the women's 10m platform diving. China won gold, Australia silver, and Mexico bronze.

I read in the news that Beijing would have tight security, and i even read an article calling this the "no fun games". From my experiences at the airport and subways, the security has been heightened, but I would definitely not call it "tight." I could EASILY sneak in a bomb or a tibet flag through the subway or into Tiananmen square. Yesterday, I had 3 shopping bags and they didn't even make me put it through the machine to check for bombs.

Another thing i've been seeing is how normal the North Korean delegation is. In America, I think often the news media depicts North Korea as such an evil state or whatever. But from what I've noticed of the athletes and coaches and stuff, is how normal they are as human beings. Cheerful, happy to be here, dreams to win, etc. I've met South Koreans in the past who realize that the North Koreans are simply in bad luck and put in a bad situation, but that it doesn't mean they are bad people. On the other hand, I've also met South Koreans who believe that the problems North Koreans face has nothing to do with South Korea, and that South Korea is better off by itself and forgetting about the North. Seeing the North Korean delegation this time really makes me feel happy that they are so happy to be here, but also makes me feel bad for their situation.

I also have to give props to Yao Ming. I watched him play his heart out today against top team Spain. His team mates don't even belong on his team, because they are not even close to the same level. China has no chance of winning a medal, and probably it would be best for Yao to rest during the summer, and prepare for the NBA season where he has Artest and Mcgrady for a legitimate chance to win a championship. But Yao is so loyal and admirable, that he played his heart out today with scrubs even though he probably knows the team has no chance. Very unselfish, very admirable.

More bombs are going off in the Muslim region of China. You can expect China is going to crack down and put a stop to it as much as they can. For the most part, the muslims live quite well in China. I went to a muslim restaurant the other day. Middle Easterners speaking Chinese is a pretty amusing sight, although i think the majority of Muslim in China can speak Chinese. The lady who owns that restaurant drives a sports car, so she makes a good life in China. I hope more of the Muslim can integrate into Chinese society like the ones I saw.

The Wave

I've been thinking a bit about psychology lately. I told my aunt about the Milgram experiments.

In case you don't know about it, read up on it on wikipedia, it's really interesting. Basically, Professor Milgram concludes that most humans do not have the resources necessary to resist authority, thus explaining events like Nazism.

Also, The Wave is a book based on a true story of a high school teacher that tries an experiment to re-create the nazi movement in his own class. Amazingly and scarily, he succeeds.

TV Coverage

I spent a long time today watching the Olympic coverage on TV. I watched China's defending gold medalist in air rifle perform miserably, and 2 other Chinese win gold in weightlifting and air pistol.

The Olympics are SUCH a big deal to the athletes and to the Chinese public.

I watched an interview of the defending gold medalist after she failed to win the air rifle event. There is just so much pressure and expectations on their shoulders. During the interview, she broke down in tears, so sad that she couldn't win a gold, saying all she wanted was to hear her national anthem played. All the athletes feel such a devotion and duty to their people to perform their best, and she looked devastated that she couldn't live up the expectations. The interviewer was so moved that she continued the interview, while choking on her own tears. By the end, both the athlete and interviewer and both in tears, as the interviewer tried to comfort the athlete, saying not to worry so much about the expectations and that nobody blames her for not winning gold.

Several of the news broadcasters also commentated on the immense pressure, and generally expressed sympathy for the athletes who unfairly feel the guilt of not winning.

Yao Ming was great in the Opening Ceremony. He walked with a young boy who survived the earthquake last month in China, and went back to pull out 2 of his classmates from the rubble. Yao was interviewed, and gave great praise to the young boy for his courage. Yao is such a kind person and cares so much about his country and all his adoring fans.

There have been several small protests around Beijing, usually involving a few people who unfurl a tibet flag, and then are quickly deported. I haven't seen any such protests first hand. I thought there might be some larger organized protest, but it doesn't seem like anything of that sort will occur. I'd like to see China allow protests as a natural way for people to vent frustration and for positive change to come about. But I also think these protestors are idiots for trying to disrupt such a special event meant for celebrating mankind and global understanding.

My first Olympics I watched were 1996 in Atlanta, and I've been a huge Olympics fan since then. This Olympics looks great so far. If i could be born again, I'd like to be an Olympian.

Opening Ceremony

Wow, I've been doing so much and been so busy I haven't had a chance to post for a while.

I watched the opening ceremony tonight for 4 hours standing in blistering heat outside on the large screen TV. There were literally thousands upon thousands of Chinese and foreigners stuffed together to watch the TV. I heard some Tibet activists were detained already.

So much to say...where to begin. The weather seems good in Beijing, the air seems fine, and prices all seem pretty normal.

I was wandering around yesterday, the day before the opening, and there was a buzz in the atmosphere. There was just so much built up excitement for the games. People were going crazy buying Olympics goods, shirts, stickers. Today, the atmosphere was so rowdy. The locals were thrilled to see foreigners in their home, not protesting or criticizing, but just enjoying the spirit of the Olympics. The foreigners cheered for China and their own countries. Most of the foreigners, and almost all of the locals, had Chinese flags, or stickers or face paintings of the Chinese flag. It was just a really amazing atmosphere. The Chinese seemed so proud and happy to host the Olympics and to show China to the world. Locals took photos with foreigners at every chance.

The French president showed up, after threatening not to attend....what a faggot.

As the countries started walking out during the ceremony, I was a little worried about how the audience would treat the Taiwanese and Japanese delegations. Both received very loud and welcoming cheers. Bush was momentarily boo'ed though.

The foreigners all seemed very excited and happy, yelling cheers like "australia and china are great friends". Locals sang the national anthem like 50 times.

Team China received a monstrous roar, and all the other countries received applause.

Chinese girls look way better than they did just a few years ago, which is a pleasant surprise. Stronger economy leads to fashion and makeup.

For a while, I didn't have a cell phone, and I had to make a few important calls. So I was asking some of the locals if I could borrow their cell phone to make a call. I asked a total of 5 people so far, and only 1 allowed me to make the call(and he ended up stalking the person who i called, asking to be friends with her and such). The others either flat out said no, lied to me saying they have no batteries left, or gave some other explanation. I guess you can't really do that here.

I've been visiting buddhist temples, taoist temples, a confuscian temple, museums, pagodas, and all of that in blistering heat. I visited the military museum today, which was pretty interesting. Another place for China to promote patriotism. I went to a anthropology museum a few days ago, and that was pretty awesome.

I ate a birds nest yesterday. I like eating weird food, but it was pretty gross.

I think there's a lot more that's been on my mind, but i can't remember right now. I'll update later.