Absurdity, Allegory and China

Last March I wrote a post anticipating the Olympic protests in support of a ‘free’ Tibet. Nothing prescient, mind you; anyone with a tooth in their head, and a lot of folks without, could have anticipated attempts at extreme displays.
If your plan is to make a scene, I am asking you to review your reasons [...]

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In early June I went to the CCTV Bldg. to have a look and what I found cocked my brow a few degrees: on the roof of the northwest tower, Tower 1, there was a helipad, a circular affair that oddly took the edge off the well-defined linear profile. A circle of all things! As [...]

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I’ve just arrived back in Tianjin from four days in Beijing, and there’s so much to talk about I hardly know where to begin. Photos of the CCTV Headquarters Building seems to be as good as place as any while I collect my thoughts.
There’s the bullet train from Tianjin to Beijing (and vice versa, though [...]

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George Bush is coming to town. For fun. And Games too. And to speak, as well, on religious rights (or right, as in, “When he fumbles the ball he’s ambidextrous, but in the church softball league he bats right.”), or so it looks from here. A duck, lame or otherwise, in Beijing in August 2008 [...]

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In the latest dance of finger-pointing into empty space, the IOC has unveiled their newest strategy, which is actually an ESL Revisionist View of Recent History. As the flap continues over what the IOC was promised by BOCOG and China and what the IOC head, Jacques Rogge, actually meant to say about the censorship issue [...]

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On the Chinese solar calendar Li Qiu, the Beginning of Autumn, falls this year on Thursday, August 7th (it’s always either the 7th, 8th or 9th). Should we look for a favorable change in winds and weather, and, if it happens, what would that mean?
This is a test.

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One thing that has bothered me about the odd-even car usage rule in Beijing is that most people are claiming that it takes half the cars off the road, which is not true. Cabs, police, security of every stripe, special exemptions and Olympic vehicles ensure that the number falls well short of one-half. It has [...]

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The big news of the day is that China has broken the promise it made to hook the IOC and land the Olympics seven years ago. This is only news to those who believed that this could possibly have happened, though seven years out there was at least a modicum of hope that things might [...]

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The persistent pollution problem that has received so much press in the long run-up to the Olympics is claiming more and more press space as more and more press arrive in Beijing: “Where’s the sun? Where’re the mountains? Where’s the next building?” Don’t look for the assault to let up. It is after all, Huabei [...]

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From Networks Fight Shorter Olympic Leash in the NYT:
One I.O.C. commissioner, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid further complicating the situation, said matter-of-factly that Chinese officials had “put a tourniquet” on the Olympics.
“Had the I.O.C., and those vested with the decision to award the host city contract, known seven years ago that there would [...]

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