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China

What I couldn't write in China
Relative press freedom hasn't led to rampant muckraking, but it's not all smiles and "Have a great day!" beyond Olympic Beijing.
By John Krich August 23, 2008
All hail Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh!
I love the American beach volleyball champions -- and it isn't just because they have great derrieres.
By Gary Kamiya August 22, 2008
Rogge: Usain in the membrane
The IOC chief criticizes the magnificent Bolt for celebrating. Is he an idiot or just crazy?
By King Kaufman August 21, 2008
Hacker: Gymnast He is 14, not 16
A blogger uses Google and a Chinese search engine to find government documents showing the uneven-bars champ's birth date as Jan. 1, 1994.
By King Kaufman August 21, 2008
Sweet swift deities in spikes
My day of track and field was glorious, but I long to turn the Olympics back to the purity of my boyhood dreams.
By John Krich August 20, 2008
Dare to struggle, dare to win!
Nike darling Liu Xiang let down his nation. Shouldn't the poster boy for the new China have crawled across the finish line -- no matter what?
By John Krich August 19, 2008
The naked city
Beijing's artists deserve a gold for the sheer wealth of their audacity and talent.
By John Krich August 18, 2008
The bluest day
Sun shines bright on Beijing at last -- a perfect day for pure sport, beckoning all to party (and spend) within the Forbidden City.
By John Krich August 17, 2008
A tale of two Beijings
It wasn't the Red Army that killed feudalism -- it was the Olympics.
By John Krich August 16, 2008
Asian athletes kick butt
Sports are coming on strong in a region that has traditionally favored scholarship. Example: Thailand's prodigious women weightlifters.
By John Krich August 13, 2008
"No fear, no regret"
In the men's team gymnastics final, no one lost.
By Gary Kamiya August 12, 2008
Precision vs. power
The scrappy American women's gymnasts captured my heart, but I'm rooting for the Chinese -- they need some joy in their lives.
By Jennifer Sey August 11, 2008
Insecure security
China's tight grip might be at odds with the Olympic ideal of togetherness, but it's been building high walls for centuries.
By John Krich August 11, 2008
The pressure cooker
In their different ways, the Olympic events on the dazzling first full day in Beijing showcased the ultimate athletic feat: Overcoming fear.
By Gary Kamiya August 10, 2008
No way in
With 1.3 billion potential scalping customers, no scalpers and a bureaucratic snafu for press ducats, Olympic tickets are tough to come by.
By John Krich August 10, 2008
A view of a killing
The reaction to the fatal attack on American tourists in Beijing is very different from the U.S. response to the 1996 Atlanta bombing.
By King Kaufman August 9, 2008
An opening that keeps the door shut
Filmmaker Zhang Yimou's minimalist update on the mass rallies of old fails to illuminate the modern society China is trying to build.
By John Krich August 9, 2008
The "bitter sea" of Chinese life
Our correspondent returns to Beijing for the games -- and finds the same old dreary place.
By John Krich August 8, 2008

Recent posts

Scoring the Beijing Olympics
They get a 9 for pomp and spectacle, but only a 3 for furthering world understanding and a 2 for the fan experience.
Athletes are just people
The outrage over Usain Bolt's chest-pounding proves that we expect athletes to be heroes -- and when they're not, we turn on them.
What happened to the real Olympics?
By only showing snippets of classic events like the decathlon, high jump and pole vaulting, NBC is missing what makes the Olympics special.

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About the Authors

Gary Kamiya is Salon's writer at large. He covered the Olympics for the magazine in Nagano, Sydney and Athens.

King Kaufman is Salon's daily sports columnist.

John Krich has been covering China for 20 years, most recently as the Asian Wall Street Journal's main food/sports/culture writer. He's the author of "El Beisbol," "Won Ton Lust" and other literary travelogues.

Jennifer Sey is the author of "Chalked Up," her memoir about the ups and downs in internationally competitive gymnastics. She was the 1986 U.S. National Champion and a seven-time national team member.

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