July 19, 2008 4:19

A Nail House No More

The Beijing nail house mentioned here has been torn down. At the site earlier today there was nothing but workmen moving the last bits of rubble, planting flowers and painting the red wall behind where the Yu family store once stood. A person at a nearby store said the destruction work began at 3 a.m. on Friday. From an aesthetic standpoint that section of Di'anmennei Street looks a lot better without the store sticking out amid the newly planted greenery. But whether flattening a house in the middle of the night contributes to social harmony is a question that's not as easily answered.

July 18, 2008 7:33

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Getty Images

Having just read Jurassic Park, I decided to mesh my interests in archaeology and China by penning a 20-page sci-fi adventure story about two American archaeologists poking around the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China’s first emperor, and the chaos that erupts when Qin’s vast terracotta army is disturbed from its slumber ... Sounds like a good back-of-the-book synopsis, doesn’t it? I thought so. The story was called “Knowledge and Glory,” and I was in 9th grade.

That juvenile plot has essentially just been made into a $145 million movie called The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It’s director Rob Cohen’s third Mummy film, and it’ll be the first I’ll actually bother to see. No, not to weep at the sight of someone else carrying out my creative vision, but to see what exposure Americans will have to China this summer—besides the Olympics. Movies like this also give Chinese actors their biggest exposure to western audiences. This one stars Jet Li as the Dragon Emperor aka the Mummy, and Michelle Yeoh as a “double-crossing sorceress.” Given that this is a film about a good American family that faces off with a resurrected Chinese emperor leading a ghost army to take over the world, it’s pretty surprising to find out that this was a co-production between the Chinese government and Universal Pictures. Green-lighting this film was a major departure for China’s State Administration for Radio, Film & Television, which usually bans any mention of ghosts or superstition from mainland entertainment.

Universal Pictures and NBC, which has exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S., have started pushing The Mummy hard. On July 1, the partnership launched a national commercial that “features settings and characters from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and athletes seamlessly blended in sequences in which the action from the film transforms into Olympic events,” according to a press release. Are you kidding me? Until this moment, I had never connected Brendan Fraser with the Beijing Olympics.

On Wednesday, Variety reported that China’s censors approved the latest version of the film for worldwide release. The Mummy will open in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea on July 31, and in the U.S. on August 1. It’s likely to be released in China in late August, right after the Olympics, the report said. So what will Chinese audiences think of this “ruthless” Chinese emperor? And if Qin Shihuang was the emperor of the Qin dynasty, why is he the “Han” emperor in this movie? Details, details.

July 18, 2008 4:33

One World, One Dream, One Serious Allegation

An unconfirmed report in today’s South China Morning Post claims that blacks will be "secretly" banned from bars in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment area for the duration of the Olympics. What is one to make of it? The story, by Tom Miller and Peter Simpson, quotes an anonymous bar owner as saying that security officers forced him to sign a pledge that required him to prevent black people from entering his premises. A nameless “black British national” is also quoted, expressing his shock and disappointment.
The ban (if true) is apparently designed to counteract drug dealing, which Beijing’s authorities have associated with black people for some time. Last September, a police raid on Sanlitun saw around 20 black men arrested and some of them beaten by police (it is thought that a good number were innocent, and one was the son of a diplomat). But the black dealers in Beijing’s demimonde are also perilously conspicuous, and their numbers have been greatly reduced by periodic clampdowns. Besides, the vast bulk of China’s retail drug trade is, of course, conducted by Chinese.
Although it has been criticized for the heavy-handed security restrictions that are being imposed in the run up to the games, it seems highly unlikely that China will risk international condemnation—or even boycotts—with a crude, racist gesture such as this touted ban. China’s cordial relations with many African countries are another reason to be skeptical. But all the same, today’s report is a curious piece, and we shall be looking keenly for confirmation, a retraction, or an official refutation.

July 18, 2008 3:09

Yao Ming Returns

Yao Ming shooting over Serbia's Boban Marjanovic. /FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Yao Ming, whose NBA season ended in February when he injured his left foot, returned to play last night at an Olympic warm-up game in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The All Star center’s first official game since undergoing surgery for a stress fracture should be a relief to his teammates on the Chinese national squad, countless Chinese fans and supporters of exciting basketball in general, a certain credit card company, athletic shoe-maker, fast food chain, soft drink company and so on.

Presumably not quite so elated are the Chinese side's competition. The Associated Press quotes the Serbian captain saying his team benefited from facing Yao, but 7-foot-3 center Boban Marjanovic, who Yao is shooting over in the photo at right, doesn't seem so happy about the experience. Yao scored 11 points in 12 minutes, and the Chinese team won the Stankovic Cup game 96-72.

July 17, 2008 11:15

Rainy Beijing

As you can see from the picture below, it's raining pretty heavily in Beijing. This may seem pretty commonplace but it is significant for a number of reasons.

One is that it has been a very rainy summer indeed by Beijing standards. Obviously that's a worry for the Opening Ceremony where a rain-out would be a big loss of face. China has a technological solution though, according to national news service Xinhua. We'll see. I am skeptical of weather modification efforts, particularly trying to stop the rain, which involves seeding clouds approaching Beijing so that they dump their water before getting to the city. Seems to me a sudden wind increase could send have water-laden clouds headed straight for the Birds Nest. Tricky.

Anyway, as my colleague Austin wrote a couple of days ago, it now looks as though the city's efforts to clean up its air will be successful, at least temporarily. The current rain will help those efforts, clearing the air ahead of Sunday's scheduled start of the odd-even license plate system. Some Beijingers are looking with considerable excitement to the start of the vehicle reduction period, which will run until the Paralympics are done in late September and should give us a blissful few months of clean air. Others of course are trying to figure out how they are going to get to work on a public transport system that is already bursting at the seams. Beats me how hundreds of thousands of people are going to get onto subway trains and buses that already look like sardine cans at rush hour. We will keep you posted.