3 Lius, 3 Lives

I thought it was interesting that 3 of the Chinese that are most in the news lately (though in the news of different countries) are all surnamed Liu. Their last name seems to be about all they have in common though. Meet Liu Huan, Liu Shaokun, and Liu Xiang.

Liu Huan is China's King of Pop. He'll be singing in just a few hours now at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. He and Sarah Brightman perform a new song that's been on the radio here lately: Beijing Huanying Ni (Beijing Welcomes You)


Liu Shaokun is a teacher. As you may know, there was a terrible earthquake in May in the Sichuan region of China. Many schools collapsed -- too easily, some said. Liu Shaokun posted pictures of the schools online.

"He was detained late last month by people from national security bureau for deliberately inciting families of victims to petition and disseminating anti-government rumors. They searched his home and found evidence," said the official, who refused to give his name. (source)

His punishment for disrupting the social order, passed by law enforcement and not subject to judicial review, is a year of 'Reeducation Through Labor', possibly in a place like this one. The spotty information online says that people in these camps often work twelve-hour days creating steel brushes, textiles, and chopsticks. (source)


Liu Xiang is an interesting case. He won gold in Athens four years ago as a hurdler, signaling a new era. Asians could win games besides pingpong and the time had come to "unleash a yellow tornado on the world". Now, he is arguably the most famous athlete in China. He's everyone's hero and every company wants to make endorsement deals with him.

Then again, he was selected for the sport by Chinese scouts who screen children, use bone scans to predict success in various events, and isolate the most promising for training. The pressure on him to repeat his victory on behalf of the Chinese people this month is absolutely huge; disappointing 1.3 billion people would not be so much fun, and disappointing the government, who wants to top the medal count this year, would also be less than fun. They think it will be easy, but Liu's been dealing with an injury (hamstring) and 3 recent false starts. He lives in the same apartment complex as his coach.

“I go home, and I go to the training facility,” Liu said, describing his routine. “Two places. And those two places are the safest for me.” (source)

Then again, he is proud of himself and what he's done. His goal, so he says, is "to prove to the whole world that Asians can run very fast." (source)



Speaking of the Olympics, I will be out of town tomorrow watching some soccer in Tianjin. But I'll be back soon, and you'll hear from me sooner, thanks to Blogger letting me set post dates in the future. And I'll be back in the States quite soon as well. It's kindof neat that I remember when Erik was on his 10-day countdown and now I'm on mine... can't wait to see you all!