Absurdity, Allegory and China

As the flap over the audio and video enhancement of the Olympic opening ceremony widens, Zhang Yimou, the director of the spectaculorama, is taking it on the chin. The foundation of his reputation was built upon his portrayal of life in the countryside, showing the world a side of China that the Chinese were not [...]

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Whether or not it is official I cannot say, but it appears as if Tianjin has gone to Plan B. I just received word that the odd-even vehicular restrictions will go into effect tomorrow, Wednesday, August 6, effective through August 15th. From 12:00 to 22:00 inside the outer ring road – though not including the [...]

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It’s 5:05 AM, the day the Olympic Torch comes to my neighborhood in Tianjin. The sound checks have just begun, eight minutes before sunrise. The sound-checker’s voice seems tired, as it should. He was sound-checking until after 10 last night. Perhaps he camped out in the stadium overnight so he wouldn’t have to walk so [...]

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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 airspace over my neighborhood is loud with helicopters. Haven’t seen so many in one place in a lot of years. Their mission is, as all things are here, not entirely clear. I live, literally, across the street from an Olympic venue, the Tianjin Olympic Center, a new purpose-built football (soccer) stadium that was christened [...]

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Back in China two days - Beijing and Tianjin - and have yet to see my shadow, though there seems to be a squint of hope this morning. I can see some blue skies peeking through, though it’s still quite early. I got a ride back to Tianjin yesterday on the Jingjintang Highway, and it [...]

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Sunday, 6:30 AM: the security guys at the Tianjin Olympic Stadium are running sound checks to the background music of Kenny G’s My Heart Will Go On, a double-shot of Chinese-pop horror. It’s like 1998 all over again, only with more cars and hundreds of thousands fewer bikes. Nothing pegs the last decade’s low point [...]

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I have a hard time sleeping. Always have. Living in a construction site - ten years in Tianjin - has done little to help me quietly nod off. Odd and loud sounds can break the quietest nights, and we’ve given up sitting outside on our open porch since it is hardly relaxing sharing the soundscape [...]

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Yesterday was a busy one in our neighborhood: Training Day for the security detail at the Tianjin Olympic Center. Busloads of the young and camouflaged, “armed police” vans, and platoons of locals in short-sleeved summer blues, along with a few big dogs and a fleet of water cannons started arriving around 7AM to the background [...]

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