Links » Crème » Olympics Links: North Korean underdog wins weightlifting, more reactions to opening ceremony, and Sun Yang breathes fire

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• Olympics Links: North Korean underdog wins weightlifting, more reactions to opening ceremony, and Sun Yang breathes fire
• Top 10 Search List (July 30)
• Top-of-the-Week Links: Another NIMBY protest, this time in Qidong; Hong Kongers protest “national education,” and Murong Xuecun on China
• Today’s China Readings July 30, 2012

Olympics Links: North Korean underdog wins weightlifting, more reactions to opening ceremony, and Sun Yang breathes fire Posted: 30 Jul 2012 06:22 AM PDT Chris O'Meara / AP China women's volleyball's sweet midnight-blue uniforms. The excitement continues. Here are some of the more noteworthy stories from the Olympics. The Chinese women's basketball team improved to 2-0 today with its 83-58 blowout of Croatia, and games are only expected to get easier (with the exception of the final game vs. the US). This team is my favorite of these Olympics so far. I'll get myself to make a gif of Chen Nan coming off pick-and-rolls soon. BBC host implies 16-year-old Chinese swimmer was on artificial performance enhancers because she was awesome. "When Clare Balding witnessed Ye Shiwen being crowned the Olympic champion with her 4 minutes 28 seconds and 43 new world record, she hesitated a little at first, then immediately turned to BBC guest commentator former British swimmer Mark Foster, 'How many question will there be, Mark, about somebody who can suddenly swim so much faster than she has ever swum before?' Mark obviously heard Clare's undertone, but he firmly defended Ye Shiwen's reputation, 'It was a five-second best time and it was the way she did it as well. Bearing in mind she is 16 years of age, and when you are young you do some big best times… it can be done.'" [Sina via China Hush] While Wang Mingjuan won China's first weightlifting gold in the women's 48-kilogram division, the more dramatic competition was over on the men's side, where double world champion Wu Jiangbiao was competing in the clean and jerk. We'll let the Associated Press describe what happened: North Korea's Om Yun Chol, all of 5 feet and 123 pounds, won a gold medal by confidently lifting an Olympic-record 370 pounds in the clean and jerk Sunday at the London Games. That was more than three times his body weight, something only a handful of others have ever done. How unlikely was the upset victory? Om was in the "B" group with lower-ranked competitors and lifted weights of 160 and 165 kilograms on his first two attempts early in the day. He got the crowd roaring when it was announced he would go for 168 kilograms — the Olympic record. As is customary, Om thanked the late Dear Leader: "How can any man possibly lift 168kg?" Om was quoted as saying by the internal Olympic News Service. "I believe the great Kim Jong Il looked over me." I disagree with Ai Weiwei's assessment of Beijing's opening ceremony, but here's what he had to say about London's: "Brilliant. It was very, very well done. This was about Great Britain; it didn't pretend it was trying to have global appeal. Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn't need a monumental Olympics. But for China that was the only imaginable kind of international event. Beijing's Olympics were very grand – they were trying to throw a party for the world, but the hosts didn't enjoy it. The government didn't care about people's feelings because it was trying to create an image." [Ai Weiwei, The Guardian] Empty seats filled by public servants. "More than 50 soldiers took seats at the North Greenwich Arena on Sunday morning when they were left empty by the 'Olympic family.' Some of the troops, working at the Olympics to provide security, said they were scheduled to start shifts but instead were offered courtside seats at the basketball arena to watch the USA v France. // Despite featuring superstars including Kobe Bryant and being close to a sellout with the public, there were around 40 empty seats in the arena reserved for Olympic and sporting officials. 'We're seat fillers,' said one of 15 soldiers drafted on Sunday afternoon. 'They asked who likes basketball and we put our hands up.'" [Guardian] Non-Olympic table tennis interlude: Finally… The Hater's Guide to the Olympics. [Drew Magary, Deadspin] Asian and Pacific Islanders at the Olympics: a list. [Asian Weekly] Olympics basketball primer. [NiuBBall] Chinese reactions to the London opening ceremony. [BBC] Finally, finally… What Chinese netizens think of Sun Yang

Top 10 Search List (July 30) Posted: 30 Jul 2012 06:55 AM PDT Today's Baidu Beat: China's weight lifting teams suffer surprising setbacks, Wu Minxia and He Zi pocket gold for China, news stories about Chinese celebrities continue to entertain. 女举周俊0分 (nǚ jǔ  zhōu jùn  0 fēn) To everyone's surprise, the 17-year-old Zhou Jun of China's women's weightlifting team failed her three snatches in women's 53 kg competition, and was eliminated from the competition after that.  This came a surprise to many viewers, since the Chinese team has routinely won gold medals in weightlifting since 2000. This surprising result sparked discussions on the selection procedure of Chinese Olympic athletes among Chinese media. Chinese-language story here. 女子400米自由泳决赛法国 （nǚ zǐ  400 mǐ  jué sài  fǎ guó) In Women's 400m Free Style competition yesterday, Camille Muffat of France won the gold medal while breaking the world record for this event. Two Chinese athletes, Li Xuanxu and Shao Yiwen, were competing in this event too. However, neither of them was able to qualify for the final. Chinese-language story here. 女子3米板双人跳水 (nǚ zǐ  3 mǐ bǎn  shuāng rén  tiào shuǐ) Wu Minxia and He Zi took home the gold medal for Women's Synchronized 3m Springboard event yesterday.  China's team won all 8 events at the world championships in 2011, and many believe that it will likely do the same in the Olympics this year.  Teams from United States and Canada took home the silver and bronze medal, respectively. English-language story here. 黄少祺 (huáng shào qí) Huang Shaoqi, a Taiwanese actor and former model, has attracted netizens' attention as rumors of his relationship with actress Hu Xing'er surfaces. Hu Xing'er is a popular actress in Hong Kong; she has recently ended her 8-year relationship with actor Huang  Zongze, and the rumor of her "relationship" with Huang Shaoqi emerged as media try to piece together the reasons behind the split.  Hu Xing'er has denied the alleged relationship. Chinese-language story here. 杨天经 (yáng tiān jīng) Yang Tianjing, a Hong Kong actor and celebrity, held his wedding banquet in Hong Kong on July 29. Even though he was officially married last year, his banquet did not take place until now due to scheduling.  Chinese-language story here. 陶吉新 (táo jí xīn)  Tao Jixin, a national class-one actor of China, has been accused of making sexual advances on a young actress and taking away her role in his production after she refused. The news was first broken on Sina Weibo, where an art and media analyst named Zhang Yaojie posted cellphone texts between Tao and the young actress, showing that Tao invited the actress to chat with him in a hotel room. The actress rejected his advance, and was told that her rejection has cost her a role in his production. Chinese-language story here. 潘长江女儿大婚 (pāng cháng jiāng  nǚ ēr  dà hūn) Pan Changjiang, a national class-one actor of China, recently saw the marriage of his daughter to Shi Lei, a business man who was said to have studied piano with Lang Lang in America. The wedding grabbed much media attention because the bridegroom is rumored to be a high-net worth individual with his own  jade business. Chinese-language story here. 吴景彪 (wú jǐng biāo) Wu Jingbiao of China's Men's weightlifting team received a silver medal for the 56kg weightlifting event. However, since he was expecting better performance, he was visibly upset when he was interviewed by media afterwards, and apologized to his Chinese audience for his less-than-ideal performance.  Chinese-language story here. 祖儿菲娅 (zǔ ēr fēi yà) Kazakhstan's Zulfiya Chinshanlo (Zu'er Feiya is the Chinese translation of "Zulfiya") won the gold medal and set a world record in the women's 53 kg weightlifting event on July 30. Unbeknownst to many audiences outside of China, Zulfiya Chinshanlo also has a Chinese name—Zhao Changling. She was originally a Chinese athlete from China's Hunan Province, but was exchanged to Kazakhstan as an exchange athlete in 2008. She is now a Kazakhstan athlete and represents Kazakhstan in all international competitions. Chinese-language story here. 欧云哲(ōu yún zhé) North Korea's Om Yun Chol  (Ou Yunzhe is the Chinese translation of his name) won the gold medal for men's 56 kg weightlifting event even though he was only sorted to the B-group (it's less competitive than A-group). Om Yum Chol was definitely the black horse in this competition, and China's own Wu Jingbiao took the silver medal for this event. Chinese-language story here. READ MORE

Top-of-the-Week Links: Another NIMBY protest, this time in Qidong; Hong Kongers protest “national education,” and Murong Xuecun on China Posted: 30 Jul 2012 04:01 AM PDT Protest in Qidong, Jiangsu, via Ministry of Tofu Again, we'll have an Olympics post after this one. Here are your regularly scheduled links. Unlike those Shifang protests, news of this one has been blocked on Weibo. "Thousands of protesters marched through the coastal city of Qidong, roughly one hour north of Shanghai by car, shouting slogans against the planned pipeline that would empty waste from a paper factory in a nearby town into the sea. // Demonstrators rejected the government's stand that waste from the factory would not pollute the coastal waters. // 'The government says the waste will not pollute the sea, but if that's true, then why don't they dump it into Yangtze River?' said Lu Shuai, a 25-year-old protester who works in logistics." [NBC News] Except the anti-Japanese sentiment. That's on Weibo just fine. "Officials who oversee Qidong, a coastal city that faces Shanghai across the Yangtze River in China's Jiangsu province, said Saturday they would 'permanently halt' a pipeline construction project intended to pipe water away from a paper mill owned by Japan's Oji Paper Co. Local officials will now consider other ways to clean or transport the water that will come from the mill, which Oji Paper said is worth $1.95 billion. // But tensions surrounding the incident lingered on Monday. In Japan, the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, reported that more than a dozen local police on Saturday pushed to the ground and beat one of its reporters, Shanghai-based Atsushi Okudera." [WSJ] Murong Xuecun's plea for a "gentler China." "Modern China is a strange new world. Every day, tragic and unbelievable things happen, leaving us not knowing whether to laugh or cry… These incidents are mostly due to one reason, and that is almighty, unruly, unchecked government power. // …The first kind of [social malady] is a 'numb personality.' In a totalitarian society, people have already had most of their rights and privileges taken away from them, and any rights remaining are seen as a gracious gift from the rulers. Because of the simple fact of entropy, this state of affairs has become the new normal… // The second kind of personality can be called 'difficulty in accepting reality.' A long period of ignorance and brainwashing must by necessity lower the ability to learn of the society as a whole and impair critical thinking… // The third type of personality is called the 'slave' personality. Like Lu Xun described, China has only had two [alternating] eras: Temporary stable periods during which people are slaves, and periods when people want to be slaves but can't… // The fourth type of personally is 'minefield personality.' For many people, living in China does not make them feel safe. It is as if they are walking in a dangerous minefield. Here, the law is just a fiction, and state power can derail at any time…" [Murong Xuecun, translated by Tea Leaf Nation] Hong Kongers protest… again. "The latest manifestation of concern over 'sinification' is the Hong Kong government's plan to introduce 'national education' into local schools at the behest of Beijing. The new subject aims to teach students about China's history and culture, as well as to strengthen their national identity and help them 'foster a sense of affection for the country,' according to the Education Bureau's curriculum guide. It will be taught in some elementary schools beginning this September and is to be mandatory in 2015 for all public elementary schools and 2016 for public high schools. // Several tens of thousands of parents, teachers, students and children took to the streets on Sunday, July 29, to protest national education." [Time] Corollary: Pictures. [Global Voices] Corollary: Hong Kongers express themselves on video and on the Internet. [BadCanto] Let's count the ways in which this is horrible. "A dog-meat dealer was detained after he was accused of killing a man by sticking a poisoned needle into his head as the victim tried to stop him from killing dogs, police said yesterday. // …A dog-meat dealer was detained after he was accused of killing a man by sticking a poisoned needle into his head as the victim tried to stop him from killing dogs, police said yesterday." [Shanghai Daily] Qidong gang-beating interlude, via Global Voices: Finally… Daniel Bell's piece ("Political Meritocracy is a Good Thing: The Case of China"), and James P's response ("Hu Jintao was chosen by a magical deer"). [New Perspectives Quarterly, Blood and Treasure] Finally, finally… Via Tea Leaf Nation

Today’s China Readings July 30, 2012 Posted: 29 Jul 2012 03:09 PM PDT China to tighten security ahead of Party congress｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com China will "tamper down and consolidate" a security belt in Beijing before the city hosts a crucial Communist Party of China congress during which a new generation of leaders will be elected. The curative powers of the Internet – Salon.com as the Chinese government is learning too// That's why errors and frauds have a very short life-span on the Internet. The power to tap into collective knowledge and research is so much more potent than being confined to a single journalistic outlet. The ability to have one's work take the form of a mass dialogue, rather than a stagnant monologue, is incredibly valuable. It is true that the Internet can be used to disseminate falsehoods quickly, but it just as quickly roots them out and exposes them in a way that the traditional model of journalism and its closed, insular, one-way form of communication could never do. China keeps up block on Bloomberg website – FT.com Beijing has tried to apply pressure in other ways, too. In the weeks since the article was published, people believed to be state security agents have tailed some Bloomberg employees; Chinese bankers and financial regulators have cancelled previously arranged meetings with Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg's editor-in-chief; and Chinese investigators have visited local investment banks to see if they shared any information with Bloomberg, according to people with knowledge of these incidents. The crackdown has not affected the operation of Bloomberg's profit engine: its terminals, whose subscribers include Chinese state-owned banks and government bodies. However, members of Bloomberg's China sales team have expressed concern that the chill from the website blackout could deter buyers, according to the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. End Game: Inside the Destruction of Curt Schilling's 38 Studios been there with my former mmo studio, without the millions or government help. wonder which chinese firm he pitched. i assume it was tencent/ Curt Schilling set out to build the greatest video-game company the world had ever seen, and to get rich — Bill Gates rich — doing it. Instead, the whole thing exploded in his face. Drawing on exclusive interviews with the Red Sox legend and his former employees, Jason Schwartz takes us inside the chaos, arrogance, and mistakes that led to the destruction of 38 Studios and the loss of $75 million in taxpayer money. Japanese reporter beaten by Chinese police at Nantong protest｜Politics｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com Atsushi Okudera, the correspondent of Tokyo-based Asahi Shimbun's Shanghai Bureau, was beaten by the Chinese police when covering a protest launched by the citizens of Nantong, Jiangsu province, against a branch of a Japanese firm on July 28 for emitting toxins into the waters of the city of Qidong, reports the Japan News Network. Sexnomics: Japan's 100 Billion Dollar Sex Industry And The Pink Zone : Japan Subculture Research Center Japan's semi-legal sex industry exists on a mind-boggling scale, yet there are very few books or articles which even give a rudimentary idea of how big a role it plays in the national economy. Japan has laws which forbid prostitution but set no punishment for the prostitute or the customer. Selling uncensored pornography depicting sexual intercourse is a crime but paying for actual sexual intercourse at an established Soapland establishment is not. It's not that the sex industry exists in a grey zone in Japan, it exists in a pink zone–it's overwhelmingly legal except for when the authorities decided to make token crack-downs. Takashi Kadokura (門倉貴史), the economist who rose to fame with his white-paper on Japan's underground economy, has written the penultimate guide to Japan's sex industry in his book SEXONOMIC: PROFITS IN THE GLOBALSEX ECONOMY・世界の「下半身」経済が儲かる理由 . It deftly lays out and explains how the varied sexual service industries in Japan (fashion health, image clubs, soap land)  work on an economic level and some alarming trends. 分享收获2012—2013年CSA成员招募方案_石嫣_新浪博客 "分享收获"社区支持农业项目（Community Supported Agriculture 简称：CSA）是由清华大学博士后石嫣博士创建的一个致力于研究、推广社区食品安全的项目，该项目同时也是清华大学社区食物安全研究推广中心的实践基地。 "分享收获"在通州区西集镇马坊村拥有60 亩农作物种植基地和110 亩林地养殖基地。 China's Story of the Stone: the best book you've never heard of – Telegraph The death of the elderly Chinese scholar Zhou Ruchang, noted recently in a Daily Telegraph obituary, draws attention to a startling fact: that China's greatest work of literature, the 18th-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber, on which Professor Zhou was an acknowledged – and somewhat obsessive – expert, is still virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. And yet a complete and highly readable English translation has been available in Penguin Classics for nearly 30 years. Neil Heywood goes from victim to villain as Gu Kailai fights for her life – Telegraph Friends say the good name of murdered British businessman Neil Heywood is now being tarnished, with accusations made against him by those alleged to have killed him. 从能源消耗看"中国经济病" – 经济观察网 － 专业财经新闻网站 Gu Kailai Trial: New Details Emerge On Trial Of Bo Xilai's Wife The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has agreed to be defended by two government-appointed lawyers in the murder case against her, two different lawyers with knowledge of the case said Saturday. Her decision could be the latest sign that a resolution to her case is near. No related posts.

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