I think I’ve finally figured it out. Beijing’s secret plan to win the most gold medals in the outdoor sports.
The smog there is so thick there that it makes Los Angeles look like it went green. And it definitely wasn’t this bad when I went to visit back in 1999 or so. Things have changed. A lot.
In any case, the idea is that Chinese athletes have a tremendous advantage in both training and living in the smog itself. Even if it clears up to the point that they could see a little bit during the 2008 Olympics, I personally doubt that stopping all vehicles in and out of the city during the outdoor events will produce significant results, but maybe so. Either way though, the entire oxygen intake for cyclists, triathletes and track and field is definitely hampered for those that are not accustomed to the smog. It’s like living in L.A. and visiting L.A. from Aspen. An air quality change will definitely effect your performance.
Who knows what will be done about the smog and how it will effect the international teams competing. But I won’t hold my breath if China starts pulling those medals like taking candy from a baby.
Photo Credit: (rytc)
I had first heard about Ted Koppel’s Discovery Channel special, The People’s Republic of Capitalism, when Koppel appeared on The Daily Show a few weeks ago to promote the special. If you don’t recall, Koppel is most famous for his decades of reporting on ABC’s Nightline. The 4-part mini-series documentary starts today, Wednesday, July 9th thru Saturday, July 12th airing at 10 PM EST/PT. The New York Times summarizes the series in the article, “Ted Koppel Tours a China Brimming With Dreams and Consumerism“:
“…“The U.S. relationship to China is so intricate and so deep that Americans need to know that it’s more than cheap labor at Wal-Mart or tainted toys,” Mr. Koppel said. “We’d have a hard time extricating ourselves from it.” “The People’s Republic of Capitalism,” shown over four consecutive nights, is being broadcast on the eve of the 2008 summer Olympic Games in Beijing, at a time when human rights advocates have been urging a boycott of the Games to protest China’s crackdown on antigovernment protests in Tibet and its support of the government in Sudan… Mr. Koppel contends that the story of China is as entertaining and dramatic as any novel: 300 million people have escaped poverty in less than a generation, and millions are migrating from the countryside to places like Chongqing, where the juggernaut of capitalism is powering a rapid transformation.”
I’ve already set my DVR to record the series. Having been to Shenzen, Shanghai, and Beijing, I’m always interested to see how China is portrayed on American television and in the media. As I have commented on this blog before, a lot of the alarmist views on China are quite reminiscent of the “Japan-is-going-to-takeover-America” scare of the late Eighties and early Nineties.
Although I’d have to say that concerns of China’s long-term impact on America is probably going to be a lot greater, especially as China’s economy will eventually surpasses the size of the U.S. economy (some estimate in the year 2035) - which would return China to being the largest economy in the world (as it almost has been for the history of the world, until the 20th century)
Have you ever been to Din Tau Fung in Arcadia, California (in Los Angeles)? Well, this dumpling restaurant just expanded - in the same location, according to this article in the Pasadena Star News in June, titled “Din Tai Fung Dumpling House: Dumpling heaven“:
“There are dumpling houses scattered throughout the San Gabriel Valley, some hardly larger than a walk-in closet, almost all of them good, and every last one of them costing less than you can imagine possible. (When the bill comes, it’s hard not to believe a mistake has been made. The reasonableness of a feed at a dumpling house is the near side of shocking. Not that I’m complaining.) Despite this abundance of dumpling shops, there’s nothing that quite approaches the Din Tai Fung Phenomenon. Din Tai Fung isn’t so much a restaurant, as it is an institution. And now it’s an institution with a second branch, which somewhat curiously opened right next to the original Din Tai Fung. Indeed, if it weren’t for a very narrow air shaft between the two restaurants, they’d share a common wall. Now, you have a choice of dining at Din Tai Fung One and Din Tai Fung Two - which are exactly the same restaurant. Except that they’re not. Which I’ll get to in a moment.”
Din Tai Fung was started in Taipei, Taiwan and has franchises all over Asia. I’ve been lucky enough to try Din Tai Fung in Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and also in Arcadia. Overall, I would have to say that the Shanghai Din Tai Fung has the best decor, then maybe Beijing’s. I heard that the only reason why Din Tai Fung had a restaurant in Los Angeles was because the son of the owner wanted to live in Southern California. Ever so often, I will write via the web site to Din Tai Fung that they should open a franchise in the Bay Area. The place would make gazllions if they had a restaurant in Milipitas, Cupertino, Palo Alto or along the Embarcadero / Ferry Building in San Francisco. At least that is my opinion.
If you live in Southern California, you should check out Din Fai Fung as soon as you can:
Din Tai Fung Dumpling House
1108 S. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia; (626) 574-7068
1088 S. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia; (626) 446-8588
When you typically think of Asian Americans settling down, you probably think the West Coast (California, Washington State) , the Northeast, or possibly Chicago. Well, demographic trends show that more and more Asian Americans are moving away from the traditional hubs, as reported in USA Today’s article, “In a twist, USA’s Asians are heading to the Mountain West“:
“In a surprising twist to historical settlement patterns, growing numbers of Asian Americans are beginning to bail from the places that have long been their main gateways to the West: California and Washington. Wearied by the same crushing home prices, poor schools, jammed freeways and persistent crime that have sent millions of other Californians packing, Asian Americans are moving to spots in the West they hope will produce better lifestyles — namely Las Vegas and Phoenix. The Asian migration is fueling ethnic diversity in places that have been overwhelmingly white. Since 1990, Nevada has had the most rapid growth of any state in the number of Asians and Pacific Islanders. The number jumped 174% in the 1990s and 67% so far this decade to about 211,000, according to 2007 Census Bureau estimates. Asians now make up about 8.2% of Nevada’s 2.6 million people — a higher percentage than the national share of 5.4%. Arizona also is registering significant growth among Asians, a trend fueled largely by an exodus from California and Washington.”
The article goes on to describe a lot of growth in the areas of Asian focused grocery stores, restaurants and even banks cantered towards Asian Americans. Washington state’s cost of living seems pretty cheap to me compared to San Francisco Bay Area, so I can only imagine how inexpensive housing is in Nevada and Arizona - especially given the number of foreclosures going on in those overbuilt cities during the housing boom.
The article also notes that there is going to be a new national “glossy” Asian American magazine launched in Las Vegas, titled AsianAm , which will sell for $4.50 and aim for an initial circulation of 700,000. 700,000 sounds HUGE… If you know the history of Asian American magazines (such as A Magazine, TransPacific, etc.), none have ever been able to survive long-term. Maybe AsianAm will?
(Yuqing Zhang will be a freshman at Thomas Jefferson in the fall. With him are his father, Ronald Zhang, and mother, Yehong Zhou. (By Michael Alison Chandler — The Washington Post)
Early in June, New York University and the College Board had published a study about Asian Americans attempts to dismantle the stereotype that Asian-Americans are all a bunch of math & science geeks focused on nothing but academic achievement and without legitimate needs, titled “Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight.“ 8Asians’ blogger Bo blogged about it in her post, “Breaking News: We’re not homogenous!” To possibly reinforce the stereotype and possibly suggest a rising yellow peril, today’s Washington Post, the newspaper reports on its front page, “At Magnet School, An Asian Plurality.”
“At Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the Alexandria area this year, more than 2,500 applicants vied for 485 seats. Asian American students got 219, or 45 percent of the total, while white students got 205, or 42 percent… A plurality of Asian American students in a high school class would be an anomaly in the Washington region, where fewer than one in 10 residents is Asian American. In Fairfax, which supplies most of the school’s students, people of Asian descent account for 16 percent of the population, census data show. That percentage has doubled since 1990 and is the highest in the area…The rising concentration of Asian Americans at T.J. mirrors demographic trends in other elite math and science magnet schools. In New York, the selective and specialized Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School have Asian American majorities, although about 10 percent of the metropolitan population is of Asian descent. In San Francisco, Asian Americans make up more than 60 percent of the students at selective Lowell High School and about a third of the city’s population.”
There are more Asian Americans than whites in Thomas Jefferson - it must be news! And of course, Asian Americans are good at math and science and are filling up all the science & math magnet schools across the country! Perhaps there will be a “New White Flight” in Fairfax County? Well, I am being a bit sarcastic - if you read the whole article, it really isn’t being too alarmist and raises the typical Asian American “model minority” stories and questions issues around affirmative action and college admissions.
The newspaper also references Jenny Tsai, “a recent Harvard graduate” who wrote her senior college thesis on “‘Too Many Asians at this School’: Racialized Perceptions and Identity Formation” which I blogged about earlier this year.
Do you think the Washington Post is simply reporting the news? How do you feel about articles like these - proud? awkward? ashamed? or apathetic?
(Source: Flickr, Kurt Dietrich)
San Jose-native Joey Chestnut wins again in the 93rd annual Nathan’s International July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest - defeating rival Takeru Kobayashi, as reported in “San Jose’s Joey Chestnut stuffs rival in OT of hot-dog eating contest“:
“After 10 minutes of super-human overindulgence, Chestnut and arch-rival and six-time world champ Takeru Kobayashi had each inhaled 59 Nathan’s hot dogs. So before a live ESPN audience and thousands more watching the contest in person at Coney Island, Chestnut and Kobayashi went stomach-to-stomach in what a commentator called a “dog-off.” Each was given five hot dogs and buns to eat in overtime. First one to finish would win. Chestnut wolfed them down in 50 seconds, seven seconds faster than Kobayashi.”
Now this being July 4th weekend, I went to a few BBQ’s, and I cannot imagine eating 59 hot dogs over a 10 hour period, let alone ten minutes! Eating 59 hot dogs is crazy! (and definitely not healthy). I will never understand the world of competitive eating…
The Olympics are around the corner, with the opening ceremonies start on August 8th, at 8 PM (i.e. 8/8/08 - 8 PM - 8 is lucky, as in 8Asians). I was wondering when I was going to read an article on Taiwan’s involvement in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In Sunday’s New York Times, the newspaper details some of the concerns by the Taiwanese delegation in “A Side Competition in Beijing: Island vs. Mainland“:
“Taiwanese athletes insist that the Olympics are about sports, not politics. Besides, relations between mainland China and Taiwan have been on the upswing after Ma Ying-Jeou, the conciliatory Taiwanese president, was inaugurated in May…At the heart of the anxiety is a political disagreement over the Chinese words for the name of the Olympic delegation from Taiwan, known in English as Chinese Taipei. The Chinese word for the first part of the name is officially Zhonghua. That comes from Zhonghua Minguo, or Republic of China (中華民國), the name that the historically dominant political group here, the Kuomintang, prefers for Taiwan. Mainland China signed an agreement with Taiwan in 1989 recognizing Zhonghua Taipei (中華臺北) — Chinese Taipei — as the name for Taiwan’s delegation. Years earlier, Taiwan had promised the International Olympic Committee that it would make a gesture to the mainland by changing its delegation’s original name and not using the official Taiwanese flag or the national anthem in the Olympics. But sports officials on the mainland often call the Taiwanese delegation Zhongguo Taipei (中国台北). Zhongguo (中国), which means Middle Kingdom, is the Chinese name for China. Referring to the Taiwanese delegation as Zhongguo Taipei implies that the athletes and the island they represent are part of China. Sports announcers in China often use the name Zhongguo Taipei when talking about Taiwanese athletes, and signs at sports events on the mainland display that name.”
The irony is that the English name of Taiwan, or Chinese Taipei, however confusing the name may be, is at least different and recognized as a country different and separate from the People’s Republic of China. But in Chinese, China can publicly manipulate to the world that Taiwan is a part of China by representing Taiwan’s Chinese name that favors its political agenda, despite it being counter to what it has agreed upon in the past (and the non-Chinese speaking/reading world doesn’t know the difference). There is no “lost in translation” here - but a deliberate, constant effort by China to continually portray Taiwan as a rogue nation that has always been a part of mainland China. It bothers me to no end that Taiwan has to use the name “Chinese Taipei” in the Olympics, as well as use a separate flag to represent itself. Are there any other countries in the world that have to do that as well???
Considering China does consider Taiwan a rogue, separatist state, it is remarkable that China is having Taiwan represented in the Beijing Olympics - but no doubt a condition of hosting the Games. Hopefully, China and its citizens will be respect Taiwan’s participation in the Olympics. For me, I’ll be rooting for the United States and Taiwan.
This past May, I had blogged about “The Imprisoned Stanford MBA - Stanford grads work to free pal held in China.” In today’s Los Angeles Times, the newspaper reports: “China releases U.S. citizen Jude Shao on parole“:
“After more than a decade in a Shanghai prison, a Chinese-American entrepreneur whose case illustrated the perils of doing business in China and the nation’s tenuous rule of law was released today on parole…today — a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice concluded a visit to Beijing during which human rights were discussed — Shao walked out of Qingpu Prison, on the outskirts of Shanghai… Under China’s parole rules, Shao would likely face travel limits and other restrictions, including contact with foreigners and the press. But it is possible that the parole could lead to full freedom sooner than the five years of the remaining term.”
No doubt, China is trying to soften its image prior to the Beijing 2008 Olympics. From the lack of merits of the original case, I’m disappointed that Shao is not fully exonerated for the charges against him. As I had blogged before, even as a Taiwanese-American (born-and-raised in Massachusetts), stories like this always make me wonder if I am more susceptible to wrongful arrest and jail while traveling in China, more so than a non-ethnic Chinese American.
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