If you are one of these lucky 1500 ladies mentioned in the story, TFF would love to hear from you….

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http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/90872/6839840.html

Nowadays, there is a popular saying among Japanese girls that goes “What we want is Chinese food and men, not French lovers or American houses.” This means Japanese girls have lost their interest in French and American men. In Japan, men from China are becoming more popular with Japanese girls. More than 1,500 Japanese girls married with Chinese men last year, an increase of 30 percent, which is the highest in history. A representative from Japan’s China information research institute told the reporter that the quick development of China’s economy and Chinese people getting richer are the most important reasons for Japanese girls changing their appetites. Also because Japan has more women than men and Japanese men compared to Chinese men are generally less capable when it comes to being both a considerate family man and a breadwinner. Today’s Japanese men feel much more inferior compared with men from China because they found what they are lacking is not little. By People’s Daily Online

The Chinese blogosphere is flipping out, because Xu Qing – Chinese by blood – at some point took on Japanese nationality.  This makes her a traitor and sell out, as the thinking goes, totally unfit to play Song Qingling (who, incidentally, spent time in Japan, including at the time of her marriage to Sun Yat Sen ~~).  The venom on the net about this is massive, here’s just one comment I found here:

中国虽然现在是发展中国家,但以后一定会成为发达国家,而且是一流的发达国家,中国人是有这个能力的!!有中国人不当去当洋鬼子,享受外国的高福待遇,跑到中国来赚钱,还说自己是什么中国人,搏感情,都是为了自己的利益,为了自己的影片卖钱啊,为了自己的人气啊 (SHTig translation:  OK, so China is a developing country now, but later it’s definitely going to be a developed country, and a top developed country at that, Chinese people have this ability!  Chinese who do go to be foreign devils to enjoy the luxurious treatment abroad, and then come running into China to earn money, still saying they’re Chinese to win people’s hearts – they’re just doing it for their own benefit, to make money selling their movies, all for themselves!”

It doesn’t help Xu Qing that apparently there are multiple actors in Jian Guo Da Ye who have US and other foreign citizenship, or that it’s uber-patriotic “go China” flick, as chinaSMACK alludes.  Here’s a movie clip and commentary on Xu Qing and the other “foreign” actors.

Now it’s the ladies’ turn, or rather the girls’ turn. A post-match fight erupted after China beat Australia in the U-19 women’s football tournament match in Wuhan. China’s Titan Sports has the best coverage; curiously, its video link to the footage of the violence isn’t working, but another article has a few photos.

I watched a few minutes of the match last night before going to bed. Seemed like a pretty boring match, or at least not one that would lead to a fight.

ESPN provides a few details on the incident:

However following the final whistle, an Australia player fell to the ground while remonstrating with the Chinese, prompting captain Tameka Butt to charge across the pitch and grab the perceived offender.

That sparked a mass brawl as both sets of players and backroom staff charged onto the pitch, with punches thrown.

Shocking enough, but it gets worse:

Once order was restored, several plastic water bottles were thrown from the crowd in the direction of the Australian team – whose ages range from 15 to 19 – as they made their way down the tunnel with local police imploring fans to stop the behaviour.

Soccer players fighting in China? Women arguing in Wuhan? Fans throwing bottles at teenage girls? The reporter unwittingly gets it right: “Order was restored”, at least in China’s soccer universe.

SHTig’s commentary to this news story are in blue

The Cat has even gone one step further and took the time to translate it, as follows:

Make haste to Somalia, cruise the Gulf of Aden
With lofty sentiments, the Chinese navy heads for the deep blue
Braving wind and waves, the warship’s flag flutters, The Chinese navy, a bright sword to harmonize the ocean.

Chinese warriors, valiant men with iron wills,
Intrepid journey, 600 years after Zheng He.
Heroic sailors, forge bravely ahead,
Bearing heavy responsibility, the motherland will see our triumphant return.

Play it loud, dont play it low. Blow your speakers!

MUL Adds: Borrowing media relations tactics from the U.S. in Iraq, they even embedded a reporter with the ship!

The story of Chinese astronauts conducting their first ever space walk has been all over the news today.

China catapulted itself into the upper reaches of space science yesterday, becoming only the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to successfully conduct a spacewalk.

Sorry but I fail to see all the excitement, what exactly is the big deal?

It appears that astronaut Zhai is only the 298th person in the world to have conducted a space walk. There were no scientific or technological breakthroughs being made.

Seems to fall a little short of those black holes being made in Switzerland.

From heartbreaking to predictable. The Telegraph (among many others) is reporting yet another Olympic Ceremony faux pas.

It turns out that the 56 children “from” China’s official 56 different minority ethnic groups that brought the Chinese national flag into the stadium were, in fact, all ethnic Hans wearing minority costumes. According to the official guide to the ceremony:

“56 children from 56 Chinese ethnic groups cluster around the Chinese national flag, representing the 56 ethnic groups”

Not so fast.  By “from”, they really meant “wearing ethnic costumes”.  It’s bad enough that they have to token-ize the ethnic groups with these official uniforms (sorry, costumes), but they didn’t even bother to use children actually from the ethnic groups to represent them.  That’s a more benign interpretation.  What if they actually considered and then rejected using actual members of the minority ethnic groups?

Even thought the first thing I did after I woke was turn on the Slingbox and watch the NBC broadcast, I couldn’t get that excited about this year’s ceremonies. Having lived in Beijing for most of the last seven years, I have definitely become a bit sick of the endless preparations and was just looking forward to being finished with the whole thing. I’m also not as impressed by certain features of the ceremony that are fairly common in China–large crowds moving in unison, for example. 

Knowing all this, I was still surprised to hear Bob Costas say that this event should ”retire the trophy” for opening ceremonies and to read Pat Forde’s glowing praise on ESPN.com (though I did agree with most of his article on opening ceremony fashion). Granted, both of them viewed the spectacle in person, and perhaps many of the best moments just didn’t translate well onto TV. But isn’t TV what really matters? Even in Beijing, 99% of the audience probably watched it on a TV or outdoor screen.

Below are a few of my specific reactions to various parts of the ceremonies:

Surprised: That NBC didn’t bother showing the opening ceremonies live. Highlights were available everywhere online immediately after the event finished, and I imagine that many casual viewers in the US simply watched a couple minutes at work and didn’t bother with the four-hour evening event. I had NBC on via Slingbox all evening, and they just showed The Today Show as usual. They even had a couple hosts talking live from a dark Beijing, while the event was going on somewhere nearby.

Impressed: By the giant screen that ran all the way around the top of the stadium and showed various images during the ceremony–a clever touch, though from the TV broadcast it was often hard to make out what was being shown on the screen….The people flying around, suspended by wires, early on (though not later on–see below for more on that)….The two dancers who painted swirls on the ground with their feet and ands–it was simple yet effective; and it had the China element without hitting viewers over the head….The Olympic rings logo that started flat on the ground, then slowly peeled upward to float vertically in the air….The opening string of fireworks, and the swirling flame racing up to light the the cauldron.

Underwhelmed: The opening drum-light sequence. It looked like they were using flourescent lights, many of which flickered for a few seconds before coming on. And they didn’t really do anything with the lights except to stage confusing countdown with the kind of graphics normally found on ODB’s calculator wristwatch. The countdown started at “60″ but we thought it might have said “GO”. Then they went to 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 9, 8 (by this time the crowd had finally figured out what was going on and started yelling out the numbers) and down to zero. But the time between the jumps of 1 and of 10 was exactly the same–just odd.  

Baffled: Several bands took turns playing music during the athletes’ walk-in: a group of Chinese ladies who looked a lot like the 女子十二乐坊 (“Twelve Girls Band“) and played squawky Chinese stuff that I tuned out and that JZ said was commonly heard at Chinese weddings; a group of African(?) drummers, by far the best of the lot; and, inexplicably, some bagpipers, who I never actually saw. I missed NBC’s introduction to this part and didn’t hear any explanation from the Chinese announcers, so I still have no idea why these groups were chosen. It was jarring to hear the switch to a new band every three minutes. And they seemed to have only prepared a song or two each–the bagpipers definitely played at least one well-known bagpiper song (and how many of them are there?) more than once.

Nodding: In agreement at the repeated use of children in the festivities. Not exactly the boldest choice, but surely the among the safest.

Annoyed: At the often frazzled camera work from CCTV. Several times they switched to cameras that weren’t ready–where the cameraman was walking along, getting into position, or not focused on anything. During several sequences, they cut to different shots every second or two, almost like a music video, with no rhyme or reason. A number of views that came without explanation, such as the multiple shots of a certain athete during the “march of nations” without ever telling us who he or she was, or the repeated shots of blue-shirted volunteers/cheerleaders awkwardly dancing and waving as the crowd around them sat in silence. NBC did a much better job, going for longer shots and and generally choosing better angles for most of the scenes. The NBC crew also reacted quickly, switching cameras within seconds to someone whose name had just been mentioned by the announcers. It may have all been scripted, but it felt natural.

Amused: At the difference in the Chinese and US announcers’ handling of the event, especially during the athletes’ walk-in. The Chinese announcers stayed far away from any controversy and introduced each country by listing its strongest events, number of medals won, and other simple (and boring) facts. NBC’s crew, in contrast, used a lot of political background and human interest stories. As China’s athletes entered the stadium, for example, the young boy walking with Yao Ming got more face time than anyone on NBC’s broadcast and allowed Costas and others to talk about China’s population, economic growth, the Wenchuan earthquake, the torch protests, and all sorts of other anecdotes.

Horrified: At the goose-stepping soldiers. I know it’s normal here and in many other countries, but it instantly makes me think of Nazis, and I imagine most other Americans have a similar reaction.

Embarrassed: The birds’ nest and flying dove segment was a hot tranny mess. I’m sure both were very difficult technically and required months of practice. But the ”flapping” of the bird’s wings looked pretty amateur from CCTV’s camera angles, and the human version of the Bird’s Nest stadium made me feel that the hosts were just a little too proud of their new stadium. It’s impressive enough on its own–reproducing it just felt a bit over the top.

Patiently waiting: For audience reaction during the final stages of the torch relay. I didn’t recognize any of the torchbearers, but I expected that the crowd would. Aside from shoe salesman Li Ning, who actually lit the cauldron, however, none of the runners got much applause from the audience. 

Giggling: For me, the goofiest part of the evening was the sight of Li Ning flying into the air. Compared to the elegant air dancing in the first part of the show, he looked awkward and clumsy, like some of the poorer flying scenes from the old Superman movies. Except this was a slightly overweight middle-aged guy. The giggling turned into belly-laughing when he started his sideways, slow-motion run. It didn’t help when they had problems aligning his speed with that of a video scroll that was unrolling on the screen behind him. The whole thing caught me completely by surprise, in a bad way. I can’t think of another time when I’ve seen someone of his stature in China do much more than stand politely and perhaps wave to the crowd in a public event….For me, Muhammad Ali’s shaking arm in Atlanta and the flaming arrow in Barcelona were the two most memorable torch lightings. 
 
Overall, there were very few ”gasp inducing scenes” (to borrow Pat Forde’s phrase) for me this year. It seemed that way as well among the crowd in attendance, at least from what I heard and saw on TV (though the NBC broadcast and several other reports I’ve read since indicate otherwise). It was telling that Kobe Bryant got one of the loudest cheers of the night when the camera switched to him for a fews during the walk-in.

What did the rest of you think?

UPDATE: Shanghaiist has a nice collection of reactions to the opening ceremonies from major media outlets and blogs, most of them far more positive than my comments….I wasn’t the only person surprised that NBC didn’t offer a live broadcast of the opening ceremonies….Chad Catacchio has set up a handy feed for the Beijing Olympics on Friendfeed….An American was killed right around the corner today.

NATOR ADDS: Check out The Opposite End of China for excellent coverage of Xinjiang.

Michael Mogg has an excellent description of the post-quake donation fever in China:

Yao Ming, who used to be the darling of China and who inspired so many young Chinese to aspire towards their dreams, is now a liar and a betrayer of his people. All of that is based on how much he donated to the earthquake relief. Chao Yun Fat is considered refuse and is rumored to have given nothing, while Jackie Chan has become a near demigod for his massive contribution. These situations, regardless of their veracity, fact or fiction, have the same ability to show the true face of the people who murmur about these things. And it ain’t pretty.

Sound harsh? It is, but it’s also spot on. Read the rest here. (Anonymoused for those of us in China)