beyondBeijing2008.com

We can understand why the footprint fireworks were digitally faked into the live broadcast of the Olympic opening ceremony—because it would have been too dangerous to actually fly a helicopter through those projectiles—but allowing a cuter little girl to karaoke while the originally chosen little girl stood behind the scenes and sang? That’s gotta make [...]

The Chinese people, I am told, take very seriously the notion (or is it a philosophy?) of saving face. What then, I wonder, must my gracious hosts be thinking about a person like me, who is constantly losing face. I get the impression here that I am largely inscrutable. I spill stuff in [...]

Fun things I haven’t had the nerve to try yet in Beijing:
One: At security checkpoints for the media, the bag-inspection people almost always fish out any liquid (bottle of water, etc.) or food and ask you very nicely to "Please, take a sip (bite)." The idea is to prove to [...]

Are the Olympics a time for the world to set aside its troubles and join in sporting matrimony? Is is OK to relish the finish of the 4×100 freestyle rela y without giving a thought to ongoing human-rights problems ? Are we being spoon-fed the pablum, and/or are we eagerly gobbling it up [...]

My colleague, Janny Hu, recently mentioned that during opening ceremonies a journalist from Xinhua News Agency interviewed her and then scolded her essentially for not knowing enough Chinese history and not paying close enough attention to the ceremony. The same journalist had set up an…<img src="http://feeds.sfgate.com/~r/sfgate/rss/feeds/blogs/sfgate/baytobeijing/index_rss1/~4/363093940" height="1" width="1"/>