Poor Jeremy Lin. The New York Knicks guard and media darling was forced to end his miraculous NBA season early last week with a knee injury requiring immediate surgery. more ›

"I'm just a tennis player. I'm not here at the open for my country. I just want to play my tennis. It's my job to do my very best. If in the past I've had to lie, now I want to say that actually I haven't been comfortable doing that. Because if you've lied your first lie, then you'll have to lie many more times to cover up that first lie. And I really don't want to do that anymore. I know many people are going to start hating me for speaking the truth, but does it matter anymore? I've finally found my own happiness." more ›

There's no better picture of "democracy with Chinese characteristics" than this article on the China Daily today which states that the repeated no-show at the CPPCC by recalcitrant absentee Liu Xiang is "no hurdle" to his position. Very punny, China Daily, very punny! more ›

Recently, news reports have claimed the Chinese national marathon team has been raising their own chickens at their training facilities in Yunnan province, with coaches even reportedly tending to the chickens themselves. With athletes at the mercy of doping tests, the self-raised chickens were part of an effort to avoid any chance of chemical contamination in the marathon team's food supply before the London Olympics begin in July. more ›

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin may be the first Asian-American in the NBA and the first Harvard graduate to play in the league for almost 60 years. But he's also quickly gained a reputation over the last week as the NBA's #1 Jesus Freak hands down. Recently, Lin -- who wants to become a pastor when he grows up -- appeared together with his mom on Taiwanese evangelical Christian channel GoodTV and showed the world how he's got his guanxi with God all down pat. more ›

Hannah Beech of Time asks an important question re: the basketball superstar now on everybody's lips, Jeremy Lin: "Could China, an Olympic powerhouse and homeland of Yao Ming, produce such a gifted, confident point guard?" Her own answer to the question: more ›

China's national women's boxing team may have only been formed in 2010, but they're already aiming for Olympic gold. Huey Fern Tay of Australia Network News reports. more ›

Yao Ming might be accruing guanxi up the wazoo with his new standing committee gig, but it's Shaquille O'Neal who truly speaks to the people! Shaq showed up for Hunan TV's Spring Gala Festival to run around on stage with kiddie monks, and went through his usual patented brand of kung foolery while trying not to step on the children. more ›

Now with the NBA lockout tentatively resolved, training camp and free agency are just around the corner, scheduled to begin on December 9th. Which means the likes of Wilson Chandler, J.R. Smith, Kenyon Martin and Aaron Brooks are probably wracking their brains for ways out of their contracts harder than Kim Basinger after she signed up to do Boxing Helena. more ›

False alarm, folks! Despite earlier reports that J.R. Smith's right knee was in dire trouble, it looks as if the Zhejiang Golden Bulls swingman is actually in fine shape. After being subbed in during the second quarter of the Bulls' home game against the Dongguan Leopards on Tuesday night, Smith went off for 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists during 30 minutes of action, helping his new team win in a 101-73 blowout. more ›

Shanghai Shenhua apparently have set their sights on signing none other than Chelsea's mercurial forward Nicolas Anelka during next January's transfer window. more ›

Alas, perhaps sweet, sweet dunkage wasn't meant to be. During his first game of the new CBA season against the Guangdong Southern Tigers in Dongguan, J.R. Smith of the Zhejiang Golden Bulls (and formerly of the Denver Nuggets), is now out of action indefinitely with an injured right knee. more ›

In the pictures we shared a week back of Yao Ming's first day in class, we interpreted his face as an open book of frustration and WTF? Turns out we were right on the money, as Yao himself admitted in a press conference he was "totally lost." more ›

"Toronto, Cincinnati, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul." more ›

Tennis star, Li Na, who became the first Chinese player, and the first national of an Asian country to bring home a Grand Slams title earlier this year, stunned her fans in Beijing yesterday by crashing out of the China Open. The world number five was defeated 6-4, 6-0 by Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu. more ›

Former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming will study in the prestigious Shanghai Jiaotong University from October, his agent Zhang Mingji said here on Monday. Zhang said that Yao has not decided his major but the university will choose special teachers and give the super star lessons on a one-to-one basis.

A new swimming star has been born. 19-year-old Chinese swimmer Sun Yang (孙杨) yesterday broke Grant Hackett's iconic 10-year world record in 1500m freestyle, touching in 14 minutes 34.14 seconds. This is Sun's second gold medal at the world swimming championships. Earlier, he took home the 800m freestyle gold and 400m freestyle silver. More good things are expected of the young man at the London Olympics in 2012 so this definitely won't be the last we'll hear of him. more ›

A good man may shed blood, but he should never shed tears, so the Chinese adage goes. At Yao Ming's retirement press conference yesterday, he was seen turning away from the glare of the media to shed a few tears. more ›

If there's ever a need for a Chinese neologism to express a frustrating state of affairs that doesn't meet expectations, we'd put forth Yao Ming's Left Foot (姚明左脚, as in '这个聚会太姚明左脚了') as our suggestion. The foot, who's status and health hundreds of millions of Chinese basketball devotees had clung to for years, will no longer be taking the shocks and pivots of a 7 foot 6 and 310 pound (141kg and 229cm) frame: Yao is reportedly retiring. The weight of an entire nation won't burden his metatarsals and phalanges anymore. more ›

China's flying hurdler, Liu Xiang (刘翔) has done it again. Yesterday in Kobe, Japan, Liu clocked 13.22 seconds in the 110-hurdles event, re-writing the Asian Athletics Championships record. The first Chinese athlete to achieve the "triple crown" of athletics (World Record Holder, World Champion and Olympic Champion), Liu has been making a steady comeback since his shocking pullout from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His world record of 12.88 seconds, set 2006 at the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne, was broken by Cuba's Dayron Robles two years later. Robles continues to hold the world record of 12.87 seconds today. more ›

Oh the sheer audacity. more ›

Athletes: what would they be without a little wanton drunkenness every now and then? Reports have emerged that members of China's speed-skating team had an altercation with local police Monday night on the streets of Lijiang in Yunnan province. more ›

Earlier this month, we told you about a WildAid public service announcement starring Chinese basketballer Yao Ming that discouraged people from eating shark's fin soup. We weren't able to find a Youku video for you then but here it finally is (English version on Youtube here). Yao has been an ambassador against the shark's fin trade for a few years now since his public pledge in 2006 never to eat shark's fin soup again. In 2007, a small ruckus erupted prior to Yao's wedding dinner in Shanghai when the media reported that shark's fin would be served as the opening dish of the lavish 12-course dinner -- those rumours turned out to be untrue. Yao Ming's role as the anti-shark's fin guy makes great marketing sense because once upon a time, he used to play for a basketball club called the Shanghai Sharks. Last year he purchased his former club and saved it from financial ruin. Now he's doing all he can to ensure his club isn't named after an extinct animal.
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Hint: Tiger Woods is not one of them. Check out the whole list here. more ›

Attention, all y’all who want to capture some of that Olympic vitality: 5,000 official condoms distributed to athletes during the Beijing Olympics are finding their way to the auction block November 29 for…ahem…hard core collectors. The bidding price for the condoms, in special packages printed with “faster, higher, stronger,” (the Olympic motto), will start at 1RMB. Officials believe that most of the condoms were not in fact used, but taken home by participants as souvenirs - let’s hope these are the ones up for bid. more ›

Last week, China's diving team announced that it would skip the upcoming FINA Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale due to swine flu fears. more ›

• China database to track children [BBC] "China is setting up a DNA database to help trace missing children, as the authorities struggle to tackle people trafficking. By the end of the month, a network of more than 200 DNA centres is due to be set up. Thousands of children in China are stolen or sold each year."
• More on Beijing doping: cyclist, runner, walker join list [LA Times] "Five down, one to go." On the list of athletes at the Beijing Olympics who doped: German cycler Stefan Schumacher, Croation 800-meter runner Vanja Persic and Greek race walker Athania Tsoumeleka.
• China announces regulations for financial information in settlement with US, Europe [AP] "Beijing announced rules that ease controls on foreign financial information providers Thursday under an agreement with the U.S., Europe and Canada, but said those already operating in China must apply for permission to continue. The rules eliminate a requirement that foreign providers must work through a Chinese agent and reduce the amount of information they must disclose about their operations."

Forbes has released its list of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities, which surveys the who's who of China to rank them based on personal income, public influence, internet reach and commercial value. more ›