Chinese TV

So during each of our days, we make at least 4-6 attempts to locate
something that we recognize on television. Sometimes it ends up being
an American movie in Chinese, sometimes it's a commercial from home,
but most times, it's basketball (the Houston Rockets- Yao Ming's team)
volleyball, golf, badminton or soccer. I've seen more basketball and
international soccer games in the last two weeks then I've ever seen in
my entire life. Don't get me wrong, I love a good matchup between the
Japanese and the Austrailians, but it's not always what we were looking
for at that moment.

We have now seen bits and pieces of "Home Alone," "Mission Impossible,"
"101 Dalmations," "Shrek," that one movie about dinosaurs on that
island - and many other American films that we never wanted to see in
the first place. Yet each day, you can find one of us glued to the
television watching Tom Cruise in Chinese or the Rockets faithfully.
Additionally, on the Chinese channels, there are, at any given moment,
6 singing or talent competitions on, 6 incredibly serious drama or soap
opera like shows, two movies that are war or military related, 5 or 6
shows with coolies and traditional Chinese clothing, and at least one
show with a human disguised (poorly) as a pig or a monkey- or both.
It's quite interesting. Lastnight, there was an "idol" type show on
where they were singing American pop songs- Celine Dion and her Titanic
theme sound worse with a Chinese singer than it does in most Karaoke
competitions at home. Ugh.