It’s like India curbing curry, Thailand banning Buddhism or Australia outlawing disingenuously laid back blokes from saying “no worries.” Instead, it’s China, cleansing itself of one of its most integral entities: the fireworks. On many a morning in my days in Shanghai, I would wake up thinking I was on set in the […]

Compared to the chaos that gripped Seoul over the weekend as the cursed Olympic torch came to town, South Korea’s neighbor to the north executed its torch ceremonies without a hitch — no shouting, no fighting and surely no pro-Tibet protest. In North Korea, where political dissent is as rare as an Internet connection, […]

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfeld, the activist ice cream makers known as Ben and Jerry, may give the Chinese government a bellyache when the Olympic torch passes through San Francisco next week. The guys who brought us Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia are now bringing attention to the Chinese government’s role in the Darfur genocide. […]

State media in China called Tuesday’s torch-lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece “a perfect start on the road to gold.” If by “perfect start,” they meant utter chaos, then yeah, great start guys. Or maybe the “road to gold” is some hellish unpaved pathway that leads off a cliff into a canyon of fire. But […]

So those who plan to visit Beijing over the next few months might notice, while passing through the capital city’s famous hutongs, something different about China’s capital city. You might find yourself stopping on the street suddenly and saying to your companion, “Wait, weren’t there more cats here the last time I was here?” […]

It’s official. I have been conclusively disqualified from presenting medals to winners at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It’s not because I don’t have a million-dollar smile or the ability to place a medal around someone’s neck. It’s just that the Olympic Organizing Committee decided to go with young hot chicks and […]

Really good news out of Beijing Thursday for those Olympic athletes who are devoutly religious. Bibles will be permitted in the Olympic Village during the Beijing Summer Games. Not only permitted, but according to Olympic organizers, they are welcome. I know some of you Flumesday readers abroad might be thinking, “why wouldn’t […]

The Beijing Daily, perhaps China’s best resource for bizarre stories, reported Sunday that over 3,000 Chinese babies have been named “Olympics,” as an homage to the 2008 Beijing Games. The paper said that since 2000, when Beijing was bidding for the Games, records show that 3,491 kids have been given the Chinese name […]

The second wave of domestic tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games went on sale in China Tuesday and boy was it sloppy. The Olympic committee alloted 1.5 million tickets for sale this week on its booking website, a hotline and certain branches of the Bank of China. Perhaps the Olympic Committee underestimated […]

As Shanghai waved goodbye to the Women’s World Cup Sunday night, the city welcomes another international athletic competition on Tuesday. This week’s event is similar to the women’s soccer in the sense that both appeal to our politically correct sides. By that I mean that we are expected to be overly supportive of […]