Beijing 2008: The end of US, erm, dominance?

There has been a bit of bally-hoo in the press about China putting an end to US Olympic dominance, a dominance which doesn’t seem to jibe with history.  I took a look at the medal counts for the Summer Olympics, and since 1956 (not counting the boycott years of 1980 and 1984, a total of 11 Olympics) the US has topped the gold medal chart five times.  Not bad, but three of the five have  come since 1996.  From 1956 to 1996, the US only placed first twice, finishing second to the USSR in 1956, 1960, 1972, 1976, 1988, and to the Unified Team in 1992.  In fact, in 1988, the USA finished third behind both the USSR and East Germany.  Now admittedly we have had a bit of a good run since 1996, but I’d hardly call the US track record over the past fifty years of Olympiads ’dominant.’ 

Nor would it seem prudent to link gold medal tallies with the health or prosperity of a particular country or economy or to the stability of its political system.  After all, in the years between Seoul and Barcelona, of the top 10 countries in terms of overall gold medals in 1988: the top two (USSR and GDR) ceased to exist, four

August 14th, 2008

The hutong and a review of Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing

This month YJ and I moved from a monstrous soul-sucking xiaoqu near Guijie to a quiet little pingfang off one of the Dongsi hutongs. Never has moving two kilometers meant such a radical change in quality of life.  Note the phrase ‘quality of life’ rather than ‘standard of living,’ a distinction reinforced for me on a daily basis by YJ who was, I will admit, at first somewhat less than enthusiastic about our new digs. There was the five square meters of kitchen which could only be reached, as with our bathroom, by exiting the main part of the structure into the great outdoors and across our narrow yard. There was also the issue of neighbors. I rather enjoyed the idea of being a part of a small community (about a dozen or more other families share our address), and have not been disappointed. Our neighbors routinely come in (often unannounced) and I’ve spent a couple of pleasant evenings in the main part of the yard, gathered around a table talking about whatever it is that comes up when dinner is finished and Yanjing beer is flowing.  For her part, YJ worries about the lack of privacy and the need

August 14th, 2008

Social networking and the teacher/student relationship

Quick confession: I’m on Facebook.  I joined last year and found it a great way to keep in touch with friends back home and to catch up with classmates I hadn’t seen in a decade or more.  But in this day and age it was only a matter of time before my students here in Beijing (at a US-based study abroad program) stumbled onto my profile and started adding me as “facebook friends.” 

I admit that at first, I was hesitant.  I know that other teachers have no problem with this and I didn’t want to seem standoffish, but at the same time, while there is little information on my page that I wouldn’t willingly share if asked, I was concerned about the need to maintain professional distance between myself and those whom I teach.  There was also the instinct to ‘protect the students from themselves.’  That is: What’s going to happen when the first of the web 2.0/YouTube/camera phone/viral video generation wants to run for office? I suspect that some students have information/images on their profiles they would probably rather their professors didn’t see. 

In the end I decided to accept friend requests and I happily respond to queries and

August 14th, 2008

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