Hard to tell from the raucous clamor of Shanghai streets, but apparently the most Chinese character is 和 ("peace") according to a study from China Heritage. Not all that evident as old ladies push and shove their way to the front of any line, but he does appear as the first character in two government slogans: 和谐社会 (hexie shehui) meaning "harmonious society" and 和平崛起 (heping jueqi) or "peaceful rise." Let's not also forget the expo and the splattering of posters around the city with people coming together to hug Haibao as well as the Beijing Olympics banner touting "One World, One Dream." At the same time, also topping the list is tan (贪 ), the character representing greediness...perhaps a little more reflective of actual society than the much more philosophical concept of harmony. more ›

It took a decade, but this April, the International Olympic Committee disqualified China's team (third place that year) for violating competition age requirements. And yesterday, the U.S. team was awarded their "exact replicas" of the Sydney medals at a ceremony in Connecticut. The Chinese team has returned theirs. "This is a huge statement by the IOC and international gymnastics federation that fair play is important," said Steve Penny, the president of USA Gymnastics. more ›

The FIG, the international governing body of gymnastics, has recommended that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strip the Chinese women's gymnastic team of their 2000 Olympic bronze medal for violating competition age requirements. The two gymnasts at the center of this investigation were Dong Fangxiao (董方霄) and Yang Yun (杨云). more ›

Meet Zhou Yang, a teenager from Jilin Province who won the women's speed skating competition on Saturday, grabbing another gold for team China. Breezing to victory in the 1,500-metre short-track final, Zhou also broke the world record with a blazing time of 2 minutes and 16.9993 seconds. In an unexpected turn of events, the 18-year-old easily coasted by South Korea's powerhouse skaters, Eun-Byul Lee and Seung-Hi Park, who have been dominating the sport and were predicted to bring home the gold. more ›

In yet another sign that China is well on its way to conquering sport on the face of this planet, a husband-and-wife team of figure skaters, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, has claimed China's first ever Olympic gold in the sport at the ongoing Vancouver Winter Olympics. Their compatriots Pang Qing and Tong Jian grabbed silver, edging out Germany's two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy into third place. Together they smashed Russia's 50 year domination of the sport. more ›

What a difference ten years has made for China, from the new kid on the block to one of the world's most influential movers and shakers. Since 2000, China has turned the notion of "New World Order" on its head. During those 10 years we've watched China experience some breathtaking highs and painful lows. I first started watching China early in 2001, when I moved from the US to Hong Kong, and still remember exactly where I was and how I felt when I heard the big news that made it to No.1 on my Personal Five Most Significant China Stories of the decade. more ›

Although China—like the rest of the world—care a lot less about the Winter Olympics than they do about the summer games, there is indeed an Olympics coming up. Olympic gold medals are a huge source of national pride in China, so the Vancouver 2010 Olympics will be watched more closely here than in most countries. more ›

• When will scientists in China win the Nobel Prize? [UPI Asia] "Chen Ning Yang, the Chinese-American Nobel laureate in physics in 1957, remarked during a symposium at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000 that Nobel prize-winning achievement will emerge from the Chinese mainland in 20 years time. I would like to pour cold water on Chen’s crystal ball gazing. Not only has China not accomplished anything close to a Nobel Prize, but also the time horizon for bagging it could be longer, if the country’s education and science and technology system continues to operate at its current standard."
• A North Korea that's hard to get to know [Danwei] "Premier Wen Jiabao was recently in North Korea to broker deals about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Chinese media was there during the Premier's trip, and included in the entourage was Rose Luqiu Luwei (闾丘露薇), who is an executive news editor for Hong Kong's Phoenix Satellite Television. Rose Luqiu Luwei's series of blog posts came up on the liberal blog aggregator that she set up, my1510.cn, and her own Phoenix TV blog."
• It's tricky for wikis and online encyclopedias in China [CNN] "When Jimmy Wales visited the headquarters of Hudong.com last month, he had one question for its founder: is it possible for Wikipedia to be the number one online encyclopedia in China? "Absolutely not," was the response of Pan Haidong, head of Hudong.com, the world's largest Chinese encyclopedia website."

• Readings on 1999's "May 8th Tragedy" [The China Beat] The China Beat compiles readings on 1999's "May 8th Tragedy," when NATO missiles were fired into the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three PRC nationals and sparking protests all around the world from angry Chinese citizens. Included are two news accounts from the time - one by the BBC and one by CNN, a Salon.com piece by a Beida foreign student and two later analysis of the situation.
• China eyes regular Olympic show [Financial Times] "Less than a year after China hosted the Olympics, Beijing is planning to put its stunningly choreographed opening ceremony back on as a regular evening show at the “Bird’s Nest”, the main stadium built for the games... Zhang Hengli, vice-president of the National Stadium Company that now runs the Bird’s Nest, said: “We want to put on a regular evening show like the opening ceremony. But that will take longer to realise [than other performances in the works for the stadium] because it requires a huge amount of money. We need to find an investor and deal with potential issues of intellectual property of the International Olympic Committee.”"
• Communists Can’t Outspend Capitalists as China Jobless Increase [Bloomberg] "Demand for work is so high that 5,000 students jostled at a Shanghai employment fair in March for 400 jobs available in the funeral industry. One woman with a management degree applied for a position as a mortician’s assistant to “make up the faces of the dead,” state media reported. The attraction: It paid 4,000 yuan ($585) a month, equal to what she might have earned in an office job two years ago."

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."

• Israeli oranges' faked in China [BBC] "It has now been revealed the fruit, a type of orange-grapefruit hybrid marketed as Jaffa Sweetie, were not Israeli in the first place. The Sweeties were brought to Iran from China, where faking the origin of goods is a common practice. The discovery of apparent Israeli origin caused a stir in Iran."
• Tibetan students protest in China [AFP] "Hundreds of students at a Tibetan school in China's northwest held a daring protest, demonstrating over education conditions, locals and an overseas Tibetan group said Saturday. The protest took place Friday morning among Tibetan students at the Xiahe middle school in Gansu province, the proprietor of a local hotel told AFP by telephone."
• China Falls Short on Olympic Cleanup [ScienceNOW] "When most people think about the Olympic Games, they envision blazing torches, gold medals, and triumphant athletes. But a handful of scientists saw the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to find out what happens when a major industrial city suddenly cuts back on air pollution. The first analysis of this "experiment" concludes that China's efforts produced only a slight improvement in Beijing's air quality."

There's no real need for us to comment on this lovely piece of Susan Boyle / fake Olympic singer satire. more ›

Five Chinese swimmers received two year bans yesterday after testing positive for the anabolic steroid clenbuterol at a national competition last June. According to the AP the athletes' coaches also received one to two year bans. more ›

• Common sense reigns as IOC ends worldwide torch relay [Yahoo! Sports] "The International Olympic Committee decided to end the globetrotting torch relay, discontinuing an event that began with the Athens Games in 2004 and was used again by the organizers of the Beijing Games this past August. For future games, the torch will only tour the country where the games are being hosted."
• China News: Ai Weiwei: Q&A On Earthquake Toll Accounting Efforts [China Digital Times (CDT)] "Artist, activist, and blogger Ai Weiwei is leading an effort to publish the names of those who died in the May 12 Sichuan earthquake. The action has invited responses from around the globe — and questions from those most nearby, in China. Netizens asked Ai questions ranging from his thoughts on tofu dregs construction to his feelings regarding social responsibility. Ai has responded to dozens of questions found on the posts entitled “做客天涯 (一)” and “做客天涯 (二).” Below is a selection of five of these questions and responses. Translated by CDT." (Blocked in China)
• Analysts dismiss 'cyber spy' claims [China Daily] "Top analysts yesterday refuted claims by researchers hired by the Dalai Lama that China runs a cyper spy network, branding them "exaggerated" and an attempt to paint the nation as a "threat". "This is purely another political issue that the West is trying to exaggerate," said Song Xiaojun, a Beijing-based strategy and military analyst."

• As China shouts its line on Tibet, is anybody listening? [China Media Project] "These numbers actually pale in comparison to coverage in March and April last year, when Chinese media heaped scorn on the 'Dalai clique' and the 'hostile foreign forces' sowing unrest in China after large-scale riots in the region. But last month, even as the CCP was gearing up for the sensitive anniversary of the 1959 uprising, there were half as many articles with 'Tibet' in the headline as there have been so far this month — with days yet to go until the 28th, which the CCP has designated 'Tibetan Serf Emancipation Day'."
• Taiwan’s Former President Goes on Trial for Corruption [NYTimes.com] "Prosecutors have since charged that he stole or took bribes totaling more than $30 million, sometimes in return for political favors involving land deals. His wife, Wu Shu-chen; his son; and his daughter-in-law pleaded guilty last month to money laundering, and Ms. Wu also pleaded guilty to forgery."
• Filthy hospital responsible for deaths of 5 infants [Xinhua] "Five newborn children from north China's Tianjin Municipality died from hospital-acquired infections, and the hospital's sub-standard hygiene conditions and flawed management were to blame, said experts with the Ministry of Health (MOH) Wednesday."

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 ›

In a recent interview with a German gymnastics magazine called Leon, the President of the International Gymnastics Federation, a.k.a. FIG, Bruno Grandi criticized the female Chinese Olympic gymnasts as lacking aesthetic beauty and being underage. Grandi said, "The Chinese gymnasts were robots. From a geometrical point of view the moves were very well done, but compare with the way [Nastia] Liukin performs a single movement with artistry. You can see how she continues to move through to the end point. The other is a perfect geometric figure. But a Code [of Points] will never be able to completely reflect aesthetic moment." He went on to say that there was "strong circumstantial evidence" that some of the Chinese gymnasts were underage. Grandi is now serving his fourth four-year term as FIG President. 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 ›

DMG Entertainment has said it will not cancel its endorsement deal with Michael Phelps (菲尔普斯), notwithstanding the scandal over a published photo of him smoking a bong. The group said on Tuesday that it will be "standing by Michael." more ›

Photo from arndalarm more ›

Michael Phelps (菲尔普斯) has signed the biggest ever endorsement contract for a Western celebrity in China, claims DMG Entertainment group, the agency that reportedly signed him to a seven-figure deal with Mazda. more ›