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 […]

With less than a year before the first 2008 presidential caucuses, the Democratic candidates were on display Sunday in their second televised debate from New Hampshire. And unlike their Republican counterparts, the debate was not dominated by scaring viewers shitless about “imminent threats,” “terrorist attacks” and “torture.” The Democrats slammed the Bush administration, […]

Last week I wrote about a major French presidential candidate who suggested that France boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in protest of China’s policy regarding Sudan. Many Darfur activists view China’s financial and diplomatic ties with the Khartoum government as enabling the genocide in Darfur. In a Wednesday Wall Street Journal editorial, actress […]

Monday marked the start of the 500-day countdown until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Which means there are 500 days until the Olympic torch is lit. 500 days until all Beijing’s cab drivers speak English. 500 days until all of the city’s undesirables– homeless, migrants, crazies– will magically disappear. 500 days […]

It could spell big trouble for little China if the call for an Olympic boycott over Darfur picks up political steam in the West. Tuesday evening at a Paris rally, major French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou brought what was once a fringe idea perpetuated by Darfur activists into the mainstream. Bayrou told the […]

Just my luck. The day I was going to unveil the new logo for Flumesday (pictured right), this has to happen. The legal affairs department for the Olympic Organizing Committee announced Tuesday that any “mischievous parody” of the Olympic emblem is subject to legal action. Like we’re in America or something. I know what you’re […]

If you ask a Chinese government official how the preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is going, and I’ve asked many, you will hear that everything is as smooth as a Chinese girl’s bottom. The stadiums that need to be built in the next two years, the subway lines, the removal of all the […]

After months of threatening to limit the foreign press’s mobility and freedom of speech in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic games, the Chinese government announced Friday it has relaxed restrictions on the Olympic press. The Mao-inspired limits for foreign press within China, mainly prohibiting reporters to travel freely throughout the country and conduct interviews without […]