Olympic champion Ma playing like an old monk - coach
Reuters India
The world number three, who won the men's singles and team gold medals at the Beijing Olympics to go with his doubles title from the 2004 Athens Games, ...

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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 [...]