Yesterday afternoon (or 2.30am EST) ESPN posted an article about overnight Chinese NBA superstar Jeremy Lin with the headline 'Chink In The Armour'. No, seriously. more ›

Isn't having Vimeo back great? While Hootsuite has apparently fallen behind the GFW already, Vimeo is still going strong in day three. Which is why I can easily find this little gem of a video, compiled from footage taken during (but not at!) the Kia X Games, by BMX biker Leigh Ramsdell and featuring Brian Tunney. more ›

Summed up in 3 minutes and 37 seconds. more ›

The latest from ESPN.com here and here. And the latest from Google News. more ›

For those of you wondering what Shanghaiist's founding editor Dan Washburn has been up to for the past half year or so (other than not posting very much on Shanghaiist) there was some evidence last week that he is alive and well and doing more than sitting on his couch counting his Shanghaiist money (really, that would only take around five minutes). Go to ESPN.com (here, here and here) for stories related to his book... more ›

Golf in China: All growing, all new, all raw [ESPN.com] In China, the sport of golf is younger than Tiger Woods himself. But the game has grown exponentially in recent years, leading to more courses and the development of some pros through the Omega China Tour. But as Dan Washburn reports, all is not without struggle.PM Manmohan Singh meets Chinese counterpart in Singapore [Times of India] Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday met Chinese premier... more ›

Forgive us, but we enjoy watching a game of American football every now and then (yes, even after that ugly display in London). Last year, we got in the habit of watching the NFL's Sunday and Monday night games on Monday and Tuesday morning here in Shanghai while we answered emails, fed the dogs and did other important things (we watched on ESPN Asia via our Filipino satellite system). Right now, for example, we'd be... more ›

Beijing's Olympic countdown extravaganza suggests China is likely to put on a spectacular show next August, but the run-up also illustrated that the next 382 days are unlikely to be trouble free for the hosts. more ›

Chinese basketball fans held their collective breath this morning as the NBA draft took place a full 12 time-zones away. 22-year old 19-year old Yi Jianlian slipped past his projected spot at the number 5 pick when the Boston Celtics signed a draft-and-trade agreement with the Seattle Supersonics involving 7-time all-star Ray Allen. more ›

If you are wondering, yes we do live in one of the only apartments in Shanghai not equipped with local cable TV. We're sure we could get it installed, but have never gotten around to it. The finals are being shown on 22 Chinese television stations.
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Because you're going to be hearing his name a lot very soon. ESPN.com says the 19-year-old 7-footer from Shenzhen is the third-best player in the June 28 NBA Draft. ESPN NBA expert Chad Ford had this to say (there is also a video that accompanies that story ... Yi Jianlian speaks very good English): more ›

Yep. At least that is what Newsweek would have us believe. They attended the 2007 World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Florida, last month and noted that 38 teams from 15 foreign countries participated in the international events. Two years ago, when the international events were launched, three teams showed up. more ›

This is a reminder for those of you who, like us, forgot that X Games Asia 2007 is taking place in Shanghai, today through Saturday. The official site has schedules and all other info you could possibly desire. That is where we found the embedded video, a promotional "rap" by a group called DarkSon Tribe (straight outta Alberta!!!). It includes such hard-hitting lyrics as: more ›

While we were wondering why neither ESPN Asia nor Star Sports on our satellite system was showing the Dallas Mavericks-Golden State Warriors game this morning, we noticed a clip on ESPN video that talked about NBA commissioner David Stern expressing interest in setting up a joint venture hoops league in China. We stopped going to Shanghai Sharks games a few years ago because the team didn't seem to care too much about its fans, so we think this has to be good news: more ›

We hinted at this several days ago, but we didn't say more because the story we found didn't include some crucial information (like a location). But yesterday a friend who works for ESPN.com forwarded us the event's press release, which you can read here. There we learn that "[m]ore than 200 of the world’s top action sports athletes from more than 20 countries and five continents will compete in the three-day event and feature multiple disciplines, including Aggressive In-Line Skate, Skateboard, BMX Freestyle, Sport Climbing as well as a Moto X demonstration." But more importantly, we find out where all of this will happen — Yangpu District's Jiangwan Stadium. more ›

Basketball simulation games are looking increasingly realistic—take NBA 2K7, for example, which even attempts to get the hairdos of the players right. ESPN's report card on hairdos gives the folks at 2K an "A" for the way they did Yao Ming. Have a look yourself. Hair aside, he looks a bit neanderthal to us, or like a Street Fighter version of himself, though we're guessing this isn't any kind of departure from his look in previous editions of the game. more ›

We have finally woken from the slumber brought on by watching the Super Bowl (the Prince halftime show was much better than the game itself). If you were tuned in to ESPN Asia this morning like we were, you saw, over and over again, the same Allen Iverson "I'm not a gangster" commercial they've been playing for two years now — we love AI as much as the next guy, but would have preferred these. You also heard the announcers, over and over, talk about the "one billion viewers" that were tuning in to the game, and, almost as often, you saw them promote this August's "China Bowl" NFL preseason game in Beijing, featuring the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, on August 8. Here are the details of that game — not much has changed since we last told you about it in September, except now they have a logo (pictured). more ›

We wish we were outside right now. The weather as changed (although it will likely change back again) and so have the leaves (although only just a few). This has us in the mood ... in the mood for college football. Unfortunately, in China, college football is usually a craving that goes unsatisfied. Last year, when our satellite would work, we were overjoyed to find some games (albeit the Mountain West conference) on Sports Plus ... but then upon further review realized the games were around a month old. This year, with the introduction of prime-time televised games, we thought surely ESPN Asia would show these games on Sunday mornings (instead of the usual snooker or cheerleading), but that doesn't seem to be the case. more ›

Following in the footsteps of former teammate Damon Jones (naturally), NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal has signed an endorsement deal with Chinese sports shoes and apparel company Li Ning. Is this a sign that Chinese brands have hit the big time? Or is this a sign that Shaq's career is nearing its end? Maybe a combination of both? more ›

Could big-time boxing be headed to China? If Hasim Rahman defeats your-favorite-and-ours Oleg Maskaev August 12 in Las Vegas, maybe. (Although we admit it's hard to call any heavyweight bout from the past 15 years or so "big time.") ESPN.com's Dan Raphael writes: more ›

The best goal of the tournament so far, scored by Argentina and Esteban Cambiassio, after a 24 pass move. This goal is in fact related to Shanghai. Honestly. more ›

We have set up a group over at the Germany Cup Pick 'Em on ESPN Soccernet. And we're inviting all Shanghaiist readers and friends of Shanghaiist readers (and anyone else) to join in the fun. It's totally free. Test your soccer football knowledge with people from all over the world. To make it ever so slightly more interesting, we'll give the winner a Shanghaiist T-shirt. (Exciting, we know.) more ›

What better way to spend a windy, rainy day than reading about some guy's sexcapades on a blog? OK, there are many better ways, but maybe this site will be of interest to those of you still upset they took the soft-core porn channel off the Filipino satellite service. The site is called Sex and Shanghai / 欲望上海 (you'll need a proxy to access it in China) and we have a feeling you can guess what it's about. It's like Penthouse Letters, but localized. Here's an R-rated and, as a friend just said, "icky" taste: more ›

We suppose this is what we should expect from an illegal hookup. Why illegal? Because there is no legal alternative. Believe us, we'd be the first in line to sign up for a reliable and legit satellite dish, if one existed. But it doesn't. We use Dream satellite TV out of the Philippines, only they don't know about it. It's the same service most people use here, we think. Last summer, tired of Chinese historical dramas and infomericals, we finally called one of the numbers on one of the hundreds of satellite fliers that overflowed from our mailbox, a husband and wife team showed up at our apartment, and she held on to his belt while he risked his life installing the satellite outside out our 13th floor window. We paid around RMB 1,600 -- a one-time fee, they said. They warned us that sometimes service would would go out -- the company in the Philippines, knowing that thousands (millions?) of people in China are using their service for free, will occasionally re-scramble their codes (or something like that) -- but that wouldn't be a problem, because all they need to do is get us a newly coded card to put in our box. They would do that free of charge, and the most we'd be left without satellite service would be a couple days. Two hundred bucks for lifetime satellite TV? With nothing more to pay ... ever? Life was good. Fifty-two channels (Dream 890 is the plan we appear to have) ... most of them in English. We even had a soft-core porn channel that seemed to be on an endless loop of tantric sex how-to videos and B-movies starring Kari Wuhrer (that channel has since been discontinued). more ›

If you were hoping to follow the Chinese baseball team throughout the World Baseball Classic, you better act fast. They got housed by Japan last night, 18-2 -- the game was called after the eighth inning due to the "mercy rule" -- and they are currently losing 4-0 to Korea in fourth inning. Not that you could follow them if you wanted to -- even though the first-round games for China are played in nearby Japan, they don't appear to be televised in China. We just flipped through the channels and there were two basketball games on -- NBA and CBA -- but no baseball. Shanghaiist's satellite is not working right now, but a check of the TV schedule at espnstar.com shows absolutely no baseball on air for the next two weeks. People were calling this the World Cup of baseball. Hmmmmmmmm. more ›

The Chinese may stuff the All-Star ballot box for Yao Ming, but they would rather wear his teammate's jersey. When asked about his popularity in China, Houston Rockets guard Tracy McGrady said he wasn't surprised at all. "I've got a lot of love over there in China," he said. More love than the most famous Chinese player ever. Yao's jersey ranks No. 3. Here is the Top Ten: more ›

In a stunning blow to the competition in this year's ATP Tennis Master's Cup in Shanghai, Rafael Nadal (left foot) and Andre Agassi (ankle) have withdrawn from play. more ›

Shanghaiist, filing this from the media center at the HSBC Champions golf tournament, is sleep-deprived and feeling kind of lazy right now, so instead of trying to be original we will copy and paste from something we wrote last night for ESPN.com: more ›

Most people climb the Great Wall. Some run up it. A few strange souls ride their unicycles on it. And 1000 saxophonists are planning to gather on it to play their instruments in unison (if you've scheduled an outing to Badaling that day, we strongly suggest a stroll around the Summer Palace instead). more ›