Beijing 2008: The national pastime takes a few lumps…

YJ and I went to the US-China baseball match last night at Wukesong Stadium. I was at Wukesong this past spring for the LA Dodgers-San Diego Padre AAAA international tour, and the experience last night was more or less the same…with the addition of a few thousand rowdy China supporters making up in exuberance what they might have lacked in actual baseball knowledge.

And I tell you, folks: those fans were treated to a real old-fashioned barnburner.*

The score wasn’t close (9-1 USA) but we had a little of everything.  Former MLB manager, one-time “Batman” guest villan, and now coach of the China team Jim Lefebvre got tossed in the sixth for arguing with the umpire.  US outfielder Nate Schierholtz, attempting to score on a sac fly from catcher Taylor Teagarden, completely took out Chinese catcher Yang Yang in a close play at the plate.  The Chinese fans in my section–perhaps not up on the rules–wanted Schierholtz called for a foul or at least to receive a yellow card.  I reminded them that if the catcher has the ball and is attempting to block the plate, the runner can use any means at his disposal short of shooting the guy to knock the ball loose and score.**

The Chinese had already

August 19th, 2008

New Yorker: “The Only Games in Town”

For a week one recap of the Beijing Olympics, check out Anthony Lane’s piece in The New Yorker, The Only Games in Town.  It’s snarky in a “David Sedaris does P.J. O’Rourke” kind of way:

On the principle that every Western visitor is a sucker, to be wooed into believing that the grass is greener inside the fence, they made sure that security measures were not hammered home like rivets but tricked out with homely detail. To leave your hotel in the morning and have your bag and your person searched before you board a bus to the Olympic Green, as if it were a plane, is no hardship; indeed, from a professional point of view, to be felt up and patted down with such eager regularity has given me the first, helpful hint as to what life was like for Jean Harlow.

or

On every seat was a sack of goodies, and we were duly taught to rattle our drums, wave our Chinese flags, shake our funky light sticks, and finally, at the avian highlight of the ceremony, “imitate the movement of the doves with your hands.” Aside from the risk of developing repetitive wing injury, this

August 17th, 2008

21st Asian History Carnival coming soon to Tang Dynasty Times

Tang Dynasty Times will be hosting the 21st Asian History Carnival starting on August 23rd.

The Carnival will appear in two parts.

August 23 (大吉）:        Part 1: Special Edition (Olympics & Hiroshima)

September 21 (大吉）　Part 2:  Notable Posts for Early Autumn

For more information and to submit your nominations (the more the better) for the carnival go to 21st Asian History Carnival.

And in case you missed the crazed glamor of the 20th Asian History Carnival (in three acts) or were initially put off by the fact the opening ceremony for the AHC 20 included lip syncing CGI-enhanced children patronizing national minority groups…here are links to Parts I, II, and III.

August 17th, 2008

Beijing 2008: Urban Hiking and Blue Sky Days

I took advantage of the sunny skies to do some urban hiking through the legation quarter, up through Tiananmen Square and back over to Wangfujing.  Some random TGIF thoughts:

Today was a BLUE SKY day.  We’re talking 蓝 freaking 天.  First one of the Games and well timed too as track and field preliminaries kicked of today.

The square was busy with every available piece of shade filled with resting bodies.  I’m not kidding.  There was a row of people lined up squatting on the concrete in formation, perfectly aligned along the 6″ x 6′ shadow of the light post.  Who says Beijingers don’t queue?

The visible security at the square didn’t appear out of the ordinary.  The square always has its share of personnel, and today I didn’t feel like there was a huge increase in the security presence.  Quite a few visitors though, and walking around I was treated to a cacophony of languages—Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean, and those were the ones I could identify from snatches of conversation, there were more to be sure.

No scam artists on Wangfujing!?!? Or maybe there were so many foreign visitors that they didn’t get around to me

August 15th, 2008

1912 Map of the Legation Quarter in Beijing

Preparing for a walk in the neighborhood, I was looking at this old map of the Beijing legation quarter and playing a game to myself and trying to see if I could name all 13 legations as of 1912…US, Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Japan (those are easy), then Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Italy make a certain amount of sense, The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a bit of a stretch and somehow I always forget about Portugal but number 13…well, I had to peek and I’m shamed to say, I wouldn’t have guessed it.

Without cheating, can anyone name number 13?

A: Mexico.

August 15th, 2008
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