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  • A new drinking game in time for the Olympics....

    Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 12:31AM / Standard Entry / Members only
    12 comments

    This is in line with Terry Tye Lee's recent post, but I decided to make it fun...

    This month, every time you hear a Western reporter say one of the following, drink a shot!
    - "Communist dictatorship": Get it right... China has the world's largest BUREAUCRACY, not dictatorship. If you're going to complain about politics, at least get the form of government. A dictatorship is government run by a single individual. China is the EXACT opposite of a dictatorship -- it's the world's most frustratingly large bureaucracy.

    - "BAY-ZZZHEEENG": Gaaah... if you're going to fly around the world to get to cover the Beijing Olympics, please at least learn how to pronounce BEIJING correclty. It's "BAY-JEEENG" -- a hard J sound like "JESUS Christ, stop fucking up our beautiful language!", not a soft ZH sound like "Jean Claude Van Damme". It annoys the heck out of me that my favorite fake newshost, Jon Stewart, still pronounces it wrong, too... Jon, I don't mispronounce your name as "Zzzzzhon Stewart", so stop fucking up ours...

    - "Coming out party": You know, Chinese people have been coming out of China for a LOOONG time now. It's not a prison! There are more Chinese emigrants than any other population in the world. Last year, there were more than 50 million international travelling Chinese tourists, making Chinese one of the most populous tourist nationalities by quantity. Maybe it's the fact that Americans by-and-large are so content with learning about the world from their couch and NOT travelling out of the United States (witness our current President who had travelled so little internationally before taking office).

    - Any shot of a run-down hutong w/ a modern skyscraper/Bird's Nest/etc.. in the background followed by the words "a country of striking opposites": You know, when we had the Atlanta Olympics, we didn't see any shots of the run-down, poverty-stricken inner city parts of Atlanta right next to the CNN Center... and yet they're not really that far apart. So why do you insist on making China look like a shithole built with gleaming, decorative icing on top? Just to cover up your own country's feelings of inadequacy for not improving your growing and increasingly impovershed lower class citizens?

    Can you guys think of any other infuriating Western journalistic cliches?

Entry comments (12)

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  • wendycheng
    Official artist
    posted on Monday, Aug 18, 2008 1:09AM [Report]
    i also agree about the accent... there's a dumb stereotype of chinese language being 'impossible' to learn, but i find that the consonants and sounds are not really that difficult to adapt to for a westerner, and more obviously, neither is the grammar. they'll get it soon enough, things are changing now.
  • wendycheng
    Official artist
    posted on Monday, Aug 18, 2008 1:02AM [Report]
    so true about how little we see of impoverished areas of the States in the news. it's ridiculous what utter propaganda infects every country's media. hey, how come i don't get your feed?
  • wendycheng
    Official artist
    posted on Monday, Aug 18, 2008 1:01AM [Report]
    supposedly china also operates a lot according to small local practices and interactions (left alone by the feds) which i think is cool b/c when that happens it's probably more naturally democratic.
  • JRS
     
    posted on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 7:23AM [Report]
    Ah....I haven't heard them mention it yet, but I understand that some of the swim team members have stomach problems.  It's only a matter of time before the media comes down on the food they're serving in Bei-JEENG.

    Yours truly, JAAAAY  R S
  • Flagday
     
    posted on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 5:19AM [Report]
    I heard them say karate too.  Sheesh.  But Stepha , they're just talking heads.  And they have a pronunciation guide in front of them and somehow, someone somewhere started the French-sounding pronunciation of Beijing.  Hey, when I was growing up it was still called Peking. So I consider it progress.  As for calling it a communist dictatorship, which moron did that?  It's still more totalitarian than democratic capitalist country, but even that bureaucracy is still party-directed (not like our bureaucratic regulatory system).  Coming out---why does that offend you?  It is China's opportunity to "come out", show the world it is not just the world's factory but also a cultural leader.  I'm sure there are a lot of Americans who were surprised and mpressed with those opening ceremonies.  Respect.  A country of striking opposites?  It is, isn't it?  The disparity between the wealthy and the poor is a tension which we all have to deal with but you're not struck by that dichotomy.  Beijing isn't fake glamor; the shiny modern part is as real as the old neighborhoods.  You're right about one thing...every country's jealous of China these days.
  • xibanyae
     
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 4:10PM [Report]
    btw, that IS how the nbc guy described the thing! he called it KA-RAH-DEE!
  • JoanneSanderson
     
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 3:51PM [Report]
    Yeah pretty much every one of the commentators on the BBC coverage of the opening, I was getting sick and tired of hearing politics over the game. I mean will the commentators at London 2012 do the same with us, it's not like our politics is a fine example of how to run a country. Why the freaking hell involve politics.
  • janechu
     
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 9:08AM [Report]
    yes, I was annoyed by the way they pronounce "Hong Kong" yea, believe it or not... they put a heavy sound on the "n" *argh* I was annoyed...
  • xibanyae
     
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 7:46AM [Report]
    what if the NBC guy goes his way to describe what's going on the screen and says "there are 2008 young men in white outifts doing karate"!!!!!!?
  • lydiakuan
    Official artist
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 1:45AM [Report]
    :) this war is just lovely.
  • Etchy
     
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 1:43AM [Report]
    don't forget 'he competes for the honor of his nation!'  (do they have John Tesh hosting for NBC again?)
  • peachey
     
    posted on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 1:33AM [Report]
    I also cannot stand hearing the incorrect pronunciation of Beijing. I blogged about that already.

    I think every journalist with a camera crew will tape something about the exotic foods available - deep-fried scorpions, silk worms, centipedes, etc.

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