10/14/2023 0 Comments Beijing robot bartender![]() ![]() ![]() It’s the corporate press’s favorite term when writing any story even remotely related to China, as it allows the country to be portrayed as a land of despair and misery, one the reader shouldn’t even consider visiting or thinking differently about. The word “dystopian” was thrown around a lot during the Games. No potential avenue of attack was spared-even the wildly popular mascot Bing Dwen Dwen found itself in the crosshairs of a ravenous media class with too much time on its hands. There was no end to complaints from incensed journalists who felt personally insulted by an invitation to the biggest sporting event of the season. No such smoking crater could be found, yet on and on the litany of grievances went. The way they talked about the Games, you’d think a nuclear bomb had gone off in the middle of the city. I’d occasionally walk by a venue or hotel inside the Olympic “bubble” and notice nothing appeared to be on fire or in any state of emergency.īut then, there was the world of the U.S. In that world, I was living in Beijing during the 2022 Winter Olympics and things seemed to be going quite well. There was the world I could see, hear, and touch with my own eyes and ears. | Photo: Brynn Anderson / AP | Illustration: PWįor the last month, I’ve felt like I’ve been living in two worlds. The arm kindly shakes every last drop into the glass.Not even Bing Dwen Dwen, the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot, was spared from scorn by the U.S. In Beijing, a robotic arm in the press centre pub mixes four kinds of drinks from overhanging bottles and shakes the cocktails with gusto. Robotic fish, a vacuum robot that played songs and robots that delivered water and soft drinks in their refrigerated bellies were a hit in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018. This is the second Winter Olympics in Asia featuring functional and entertaining robots. Those who enter Beijing’s “closed loop” are tested for COVID-19 daily and are restricted to moving between approved hotels to competition venues or the main press centre. While last year’s Tokyo Olympics also operated inside a “bubble” environment, the measures at the Beijing Games are next level. Staff dressed in hazmat suits and safety gear direct people as they make their way through the first steps of customs, COVID-19 testing and accreditations upon arriving at the airport for the Beijing Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, on Monday Jan. Some reporters have said the doors to their hotel rooms were sealed with packing tape while they awaited the results of their airport COVID-19 test, and notification of the result via phone and a noisy removal of the tape can happen at any hour. Robots mixing drinks and serving up wontons, cabins the size of large closets in the press centre offering hour-long power naps and airport staff in hazmat suits are some of the unique sights at the Beijing Games, which has athletes, staff and media separated from the public in a “closed loop” to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This article was published (611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.īEIJING – The opening ceremony may be days away, but it’s already clear that covering the 2022 Beijing Olympics will be unlike anything even the most seasoned sports reporter has experienced. ![]() Free Press 101: How we practise journalism. ![]()
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