"[Liu Xiang] has been absent four times in five annual CPPCC sessions. I have something to say, and not just to him: members of the CPPCC are gathered to discuss policies and also showcase their political honors. The 'Two Sessions' are not parties. The Political Consultant Conference is not a celebrity get-together. If you don't have the ability or the time, please go hurdling." 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 ›

And what would a track meet be without a little controversy? During the 110m hurdles final taking place at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Dayron Robles of Cuba robbed China's Liu Xiang of what looked to have been a certain victory in the event. Though Robles began at a better pace than Liu, the Shanghai-native began to gain ground on Robles and American Jason Richardson, taking the lead by the seventh hurdle. more ›

The Quitness King himself is in Shanghai again as part of his Nike China 2011 tour, and will appear at the Nike Festival of Sport beginning tomorrow at Shanghai Stadium. The Knicks' pre-Carmelo franchise savior Amare Stoudemire and recent number one draft pick (and former Duke diaper dandy) Kyrie Irving of the Cavaliers will also be in attendance, along with Shanghai's own sole-representative-of-athletic-anything-now-that-Yao's-retired, Liu Xiang. Event details (including info on the Georgetown Hoyas vs. Bayi Rockets game!), and a Lebron-centric video after the jump... more ›

Because nobody under 30 in China watches TV anymore, we thought we'd point you towards this new and rather aesthetically pleasing little montage of athletic behaviors from the corporate monolith good people at Nike. 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 ›

A few links to start out your day: more ›

Goodness knows, we're subjected to enough terrible commercials here in Shanghai - so it's sweet when we find something that's actually pretty cool. This one features Olympic gold medalist and Shanghai sweetheart Liu Xiang in cartoon form, dreaming up a storm, for Nike's aw77 sports line. Found on Chinasmack's new Advertising section. more ›

Liu Xiang (刘翔) and his coach Sun Haiping are putting a positive spin on the once world champion hurdler's seventh-place performance at World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend. Liu clocked a time of 7.65 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, in his first major international competition since he limped off the track at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba came in first, and the USA's Terrence Trammell was second. more ›

We've always been big fans of Liu Xiang, even when he was starring in really silly Coke commercials, even when he ruined the dreams and hopes of a billion people with his bum leg during the Beijing Olympics. So it comes as a great relief to us that he's back on top now, after his great showing at both the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix and China's 11th National Games. more ›

Maggie Rauch is editor of China Sports Today, a blog about China's emerging sports scene, and an occasional contributor to Shanghaiist. Today she talks about the top ten sports stories to hit China in 2009—wins, losses and scandals aplenty. more ›

Liu Xiang unsuprisingly cruised to victory in the 100m hurdle at yesterday's at yesterday's Asian Athletic Championships. Despite the rain, Liu clocked in his win at 13.5 seconds, securing his position at next year's World Cup in Croatia. If he wins there, he'll have won the "grand slam" of sprinting, making him only the second sprinter to do so. Good job, Golden Boy! more ›

Ah, Singles Day, how ambivalent we are to you. It's nice to have an Anti-Valentine's Day, but it doesn't feel any more joyous to actively celebrate solidarity in solitude. And while we never did get that singing Celine Dion card, or anything at all, we did find a pretty interesting list from Chinese netizens: China's 11 most eligible bachelors! more ›

Singletons rejoice! Crack out the champagne and chocolate because today is the anti-Valentines day - it's singles day in China. As you know, one is the loneliest number and today is 11/11: four singles smack together, representing all the single folk out there. We think this day calls for a celebration, so we're going to treat ourselves to dinner! more ›

The Asian Games in Guangzhou kick off tomorrow and everyone's eyes are on China's perennial favorite hurdler Liu Xiang's 110m hurdle, where he's expected to sweep the gold. After his second-place (but really tied for first) performance at the Golden Grand Prix, and his recent win at the National Games victory seems likely tomorrow night. more ›

On the night of the incident, at around 18:30, Zhang Chong ran in the National Games men’s 400-meter hurdles final and won fifth place with the time of 51’63”. For a young athlete debuting in national games for the first time, Zhang Chong was still very excited after the game. After leaving the venue, Zhang Chong returned to Jinan Olympic athletes warm-up field where Liu Xiang was warming up on the runway. more ›

We reported on Liu Xiang's comeback at the Golden Grand Prix last weekend, but we were so distracted by his Christ-like stigmata pose that we didn't actually think to look on Chinese video streams to watch the magic moment happen. more ›

Yesterday's action at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix was nearly record breaking. American sprinters Tyson Gay and Carmelita Jeter stole the show from hometown favorite Liu Xiang with the second fastest men's and women's 100m races in history. Liu still held his own and then some, tying times for first place with American rival Terrance Trammell, but only receiving credit for second place. Still, Liu's trainers were impressed with his results, and expect a full return to health and glory in the near future. We're excited, Liu Xiang's sponsors are excited, and, judging from the advertisements in today's papers, so is Liu. Is it just us, or does his Christ-like pose seem like it's heralding the second coming? Photo from Danwei.org more ›

Oh (golden) boy! News has it that celebrated track and field star and hometown favorite Liu Xiang will be competing at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix later this month. The Golden Grand Prix will serve as both a comeback and a homecoming for the track star, whose presence on the international sports scene has been sorely missed by China. more ›

• Okay, we have to admit the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion looks pretty cool... and its structure is made out of recycled CD cases. Ah, remember when we used to use CDs? [Gizmodo]
• The Golden Grand Prix is this month and everybody's still wondering whether injured Shanghainese poster boy Liu Xiang will appear. [Reuters]
• Soho is opening in China and it's going to be in Jing'an. They are targeting Chinese, not foreign, businesses. [Forbes]

Everybody's favorite sports event (besides the Olympics, and the Asian Games), The Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, is back! The field and track event is rated as one of the best events of its kind in the world, even surpassing some of the Golden League events held in Europe. more ›

Yao Ming may or may not be out for the count, but Shanghai sports lovers can still count on Liu Xiang to possibly bring them sports glory. The 26-year-old hurdler was in top form during an open training class at Shanghai's Xinzhuang Training Base, according to China Daily. Because of his Achilles tendon injury - the one that made all of China wail during the Beijing Olympics - he could still only train with sneakers, rather than spikes. But Liu Xiang put on a brave face, even ripping his shirt off and running aorund topless near the end of the session. That's all well and good, but our PC radar perked up at one of the reactions China Daily recorded from one of his foreign fans. French student Juliette Borque told the paper, "He is the first Chinese to win the Olympic gold medal (in the event). I thought it's interesting, since normally it is always black guys that win. So I started to follow him." Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep? more ›

A Chinese businessman is trying to sue hurdling champion Liu Xiang after injuring himself while driving a luxury car the Olympian had endorsed. The Jiangxi resident had collided with a truck and banged his nose on the windscreen when the car's airbags failed to activate. His doctor's bill amounted to almost 1000 RMB. Since he had bought the car because of an advert featuring Liu, the hurdler was obviously responsible. In that vein, we're thinking of suing this guy's mother for offending our sensibilities by producing such a dickwad... it makes about as much sense. Source: Reuters more ›

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 ›

First we heard that hurdler Liu Xiang (刘翔）would not likely recover from injury in time for world championships in August of this year, setting instead a target of returning for the Shanghai Grand Prix in September. Now, Team Liu seems to be prepping fans for the possibility that the one-time world record holder and former Olympic champion—whose failure to compete was China's biggest disappointment last August—might soon hang up his spikes for good. more ›

What will the Chinese sports world be buzzing about in 2009? Here is a look at what could lie ahead this year. In no particular order, the top 10 sports stories in China for 2009: more ›

Of the 22.6% of the country that now has access to the Internet, 162 million blog, while 234 million log on to read up on the news. more ›

After a week-long trip to see doctors in the U.S., Chinese gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang (刘翔) has returned to Shanghai with his coach Sun Haiping and is set to undergo an operation soon. Prior to this trip, a conservative approach had been advised for the Achilles injury that led to Liu's shock withdrawal from the Beijing Olympics and Sun had always maintained that surgery would be a "last resort". Medical experts in the U.S. have advised that surgery is not just safe, but necessary to remove the three calcifications that have occurred between his bone and tendon, and Liu himself has said (through his coach) that he is willing to do "whatever it takes" to ensure he gets back on track. more ›

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese. more ›

Injured hurdler Liu Xiang has written a letter to the people of China and his supporters worldwide, which was posted on Chinese national track and field coach Feng Shuyong's (冯树勇) blog yesterday. Below is a translation of Feng's post: more ›