Transformers Special – Part 3
The third and final Transformers special. Jaime and Anderson review “Dark of the Moon” and swear to leave Michael Bay alone from now on. Probably.
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Transformers Special – Part 2
In the second installment of a three-part Transformers special, Anderson and Jaime review “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.”
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Transformers Special – Part 1
Not related to China at all! In celebration of Transformers: Dark of the Moon being released, Jaime and Anderson watch and review the first Transformers movie from 2007.
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Basketball In China
So I know that I promised a post on Saturday (which at the time was supposed to be last Saturday) so here it is. For whatever reason, probably Michael Jordan and Yao Ming, amongst others, the sport of basketball has really taken off in China. The inspiration for this post comes from the Chinese guy I saw wearing a Baron Davis shirt, which was ridiculous (I didn’t even know the Chinese knew who Baron Davis was much less would actually like him).
Basketball has become a topic great interest to the Chinese though. Whether it is the Chinese Olympic basketball team from the 2008 summer games, the CBA or the much more popular NBA, the Chinese are obsessed with basketball. Not only do they watch it, but they also play it. During my lunch break at my kindergarten I will wander around and hear basketballs bouncing all over the area that I work.
I have also had the males from our recruiting company ask me about basketball in America, and who I like. They are even more well versed in the NBA than I am though, talking about the games from the past days, or who is going to win the title.
As far as I can tell though they still seem obsessed with Michael Jordan, and are now becoming obsessed with Kobe Bryant, which shows that no matter how big of a dick you are, you can still be worshiped as a hero (cough Mao, cough Mao Zedong).
China really has embraced the game of basketball and of course have (like any good government) turned it into a source of ground worship. By producing two players who have made it into the NBA they have turned the once prominent American worship into Chinese pride. Yao Ming is all over ads on television and subway billboards (posing for everything from Oreos to computers and cell phones).
It really is amazing how the government can take something as mundane as basketball and get the entire country to start to like it, and then to turn it into a reason to love China. Now I realize that they are not that good at basketball but making it a point of nationalistic pride has created another way for the government to gain more control by making its people associate a fun recreational activity with this arbitrary plot of land.
Chinese Night Life – St. Patrick’s Day
Ninety percent of the Chinese people we talked to didn’t know what St. Paddy’s Day was — granted we only talked to like five. So we didn’t really know what to do besides go to Paddy O’Sheas, “the most genuine Irish bar pub in Beijing.”
As soon as we got there it was obvious that no Chinese people knew what was up. The bar was packed with Westerners. It was seriously all white people. It totally killed the novelty of seeing another Westerner in Beijing. These people are everywhere now! I think it made me a tiny bit racist. [Reverse racist. Technically. Something I learned in college.]
Anyway, the white people weren’t the only problem. It was also the Jews. Kidding. Jeesh. The other problem was paying 55 kuai for a Guinness that tasted like shit. So we packed up and moved to a bar called Smugglers — which I love.
At Smuggler’s I got six Tsingtao’s for 60 kuai. I think we did what any real Irish person would’ve done. (Except a real Irish person would have bitched about having to drink this “cheap Chinamen piss water,” but done it anyway.)
[Pretty sure this post is the most racist thing I've ever written.]
