Reports From Our Fellows

How KWF Covered the Olympics in Beijing

You Can Tell the Difference, Even at Night
By Terril Jones ’96

I used to take “Jichang Lu,” or “Airport Road,” from Beijing’s International Airport into the Chinese capital in the mid- and late-1980s. It was more of a tree-lined country lane, with room for only one car going each direction. Today the way in from Capital Airport is a multi-lane freeway, and instead of trees and fields, the entire route is lined with building after building. ... read more >>

The Bad Boy of Badminton
By Richard Deitsch ’09

I had come to see the Bad Boy of Badminton, the shuttlecock king of Asia who had captured a pair of world titles along with the hearts of young women across his land. You’ve probably never heard of Lin Dan, but in China, which treats badminton and table tennis with the same fervor with which Americans treat the National Football League, Lin is a fullfledged sporting idol, a handsome and charismatic 24 year old and the best badminton player in the world. ... read more >>

The New Olympic Superpower
By Linda Robertson ’07

China was once known as the “Sick Man of Asia.” Long an Olympic weakling, China did not even participate in the Olympics from 1960 to 1984 due to the “Two Chinas” dispute and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. But today, China is the new Olympic superpower. KW Fellows at the Beijing Games witnessed the Sleeping Giant awaken in the sports arena. China won the gold medal race, tallying 51, and surpassed the United States, which won 36. The U.S. still stood atop the total medals scorecard, but China could dominate in 2012. ... read more >>

China Cracks Down for Olympic Unity
By James Miles ’95

China may look like a political monolith, but it often struggles to keep its local governments in line. The central leadership scolds and cajoles them, but they continue to do their own thing – seizing land from peasants and selling it to developers, pumping up their bubble economies with lavish construction projects and fostering rampant corruption in business and government. Just occasionally, however, a directive is issued in Beijing that brings the country to heel. In the last decade such orders can be counted on the fingers of one hand: crack down on Falun Gong (largely successful), eliminate SARS (done) and make sure the Olympics are a success (done, as far as the Communist Party is concerned). ... read more >>

A Korean Perspective on Rising China
By Dong Seok Kim ’07

The Crouching Tiger and Sleeping Dragon are about to wake up. That’s what the Far Eastern countries witnessed during the Beijing Olympic Games. South Korea was among the nations watching the magnificent opening ceremony with mixed emotions. Congratulations, admiration, wonder, exclamations and, from some, a little bit of shock and awe. ... read more >>

Olympic Illusion or Chinese Reality?
By Vahe Gregorian ’04

Even considering the spectacles I’d witnessed at six previous Olympic opening ceremonies, the commencement of the Beijing Games was an unparalleled, $300 million assault on the senses. With precise, jaw-dropping concepts and choreography, thousands of performers ushered the world into China past and present. ... read more >>

No Pain, No Gold Medal
By Matthias Schepp ’05

At first I could hear them whimper, then fear crept into the fifty children’s eyes. After all, any one of them could be next. A cry of pain suddenly filled the shabby gymnasium, reaching as high as the corrugated iron roof. Several days before China was awarded the Olympics in July 2001 I visited Xiantao, a nondescript town located near the Yangtze River in Central China. I wanted to see the future 2008 champions firsthand. ... read more >>

The Joke's on Everybody
By Gady Epstein ’07

The most surprising question I heard from some friends after my brief turn in front of the camera on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was, essentially, were you in on the joke?

Believe me, by the time Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle walks into your house and asks you whether China will be cruel masters or benevolent overlords when they take over the world, you’re long past being in on the joke. The real question is, did the audience get the punchline? ... read more >>

Living Outside the Olympic Bubble
By Janet Kolodzy ’91

Climbing the Great Wall, strolling through the Summer Palace grounds and dining on Peking Duck top everyone’s list of things to do in Beijing. But touring a sewage treatment plant? Welcome to the start of my two-month Olympic adventure.

It was no ordinary sewage plant but one that would be providing water (albeit not drinking water) for the main Olympic area. So the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) provided some 300 U.S., British and Australian college student media volunteers ... read more >>

A Modest Proposal for World Peace
By Mark McDonald ’97

A story on the Olympics – that was the assignment. But really, haven’t we had enough of those for awhile? Instead, here’s a modest proposal for world peace: Every president, prime minister, petro-potentate, sheikh, king and crown prince, every guerrilla leader and tinpot dictator, all the Fourth World despots, every goofball president-for-life, every bug-eyed mullah with an army, every Dear Leader, every Lion of the Savanna, all the fundamentalists foaming at the mouth, the Pope, the secretary general of the United Nations, the head of Mossad and Osama bin Laden – they should all be made to come to the Summer Olympics. ... read more >>

Olympic Doping in Beijing
By Richard W. Pound

Organized doping controls during the Olympic Games began in 1968, after the International Olympic Committee formally banned certain substances and methods and began testing during the Games. Prior to that time, athletes were undoubtedly using products that later became prohibited, but there were no sport rules which prevented them from doing so. The use may have been reckless and dangerous but, from a sports perspective, it did not constitute cheating. ... read more >>

“One Country” Reality
By Mark McDonald ’97

The British handed Hong Kong back to the People’s Republic of China in 1997, and every year since, the percentage of the territory’s residents who self-identify as Chinese has gone up. Depending on the poll you believe, as many as 60 percent of Hong Kongers now consider themselves to be Chinese fifirst. Polls vary, but the trend is clear and unmistakable: China first, then Hong Kong. ... read more >>

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