Asia

A visit to Beijing’s biggest gay club last night as part of a story looking at the gay and lesbian community in Beijing and China. It’s on the same strip as a bunch of other huge clubs at the west gate of the Workers’ Stadium, but is smaller and more discrete than they are, no two story neon signs or barkers outside tempting punters in …

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It’s hard to feel bad for Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang. He has the world record in the 110 meters, an Olympic gold from Athens, a world championship crown from Osaka last fall and his face on every other billboard, bus and Coke can in China. Still you have to worry for the guy. In November one of his coaches announced …

Wow. What a concept. In the spectacularly inane US Presidential race—and I do mean spectacularly (and yes, that’s a shot at the US political press,which appears utterly unaware that it’s become a straight-out-of-Comedy-Central-parody of itself…)– one of the leading contenders has actually broadcast a television ad on the eve of …

I went skiing with my family over the Christmas break. My expectations were pretty low as I had heard that skiing in China is a pretty basic experience. I had also been regaled with lots of stories about how the slopes were dangerously crowded with rank beginners dressed in business suits hurtling down the slopes and crashing into other …

Building bridges between China and the World can be a tricky business.

On Friday, China Central Television’s sports channel, CCTV-5, held a ceremony to launch its new name: The Olympic Channel. But the revelry ended when Beijing TV host Hu Ziwei, the distraught wife of top sports anchor and sports department head Zhang Bin, walked up to the podium, grabbed the microphone, and accused her husband of having …

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We’ve updated the story of Chinese dissident Hu Jia and his wife Zeng Jinyan a few times over the past year, including some happy news for the couple last month, the birth of a daughter. But 2007, which saw Zeng named to TIME’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people in May, has ended on a decidedly worrisome …

It seems impossible that Beijing traffic could actually get worse–and crazier–than it already is but now we’ve shifted from something like 1000 new cars on the streets every day to 1500, believe me, it is getting worse by the week. No news there, except I still do wonder sometimes why the city government doesn’t just impose fees for …

Financial markets in China are again rife with rumors of an imminent, one-off, significant revaluation of the renminbi. That a recent editorial in the Economic Observer Online made the case for just such a move is interesting. It’s a responsible, sober site, and this clearly added to the chatter in the markets. I personally remain …

A holiday greeting of sorts, from China’s good buddies in Tokyo…

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Japan_Test_Fires_Its_First_Raytheon_Built_Standard_Missile_3_999.html

Well, you saw it here first. Despite much gloom and predictions that the project would go ahead anyway, it appears as though the revolt of the middle classes in Xiamen (see post below) has triumphed. The following item appeared in a regional Chinese paper today:

South Daily, Dec.20, Fujian provincial government and Xiamen city

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