He trained at one of the branches of the Peking Opera School. A lot of the actors and actresses from Hong Kong have dual careers as actors and singers. Due to the nature of the Chinese language, most Chinese speakers can carry a tune. I'm not saying they're all great, or even good, singers but I've yet to meet a Chinese speaker who is completely tone deaf.

If y'all heard the distinctive high-pitched fangirl shriek emanating from Oregon just now, that was me when the second guy after Jackie Chan started singing and I went, "HO SHIT IT'S ANDY LAU. OMG ILU ANDY EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

I totally knew that he was a singer as well, but it still surprised me. LOVE.

I was hoping Tony Leung would be there too.

I've got a question for the Britons. After QEII dies, will the words to the national anthem be changed from "Queen" to "King"?

Yes they will.

And whilst I'm here, I'd just like to apologise about the Mayor of London. Only a city with a sense of humour would make Boris Johnson its Mayor.

Lol I was hoping for Tony Leung too! It was fun to see Jackie Chan there singing. I wondered why the guy next to him looked familiar. Thanks for pointing out it was Lau.

Its gonna be such a downer to turn on the tv tomorrow and no Olympics.

Yeah, you could just barely see him when the camera was focusing on Jackie, and I was all, "Whoa, is that Andy Lau? I think that's Andy Lau!" I'm not familiar with many Chinese celebs, but now I'm wondering who else was up there that I didn't recognize.

During Bob Costas' closing monologue, I think one of the images they showed was Matthew Mitcham kissing his boyfriend. Or his mom. Or... it was a long shot of an athlete in a yellow tracksuit climbing the rails to the spectator area, at any rate. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

This is dumb, but one of the things I'm going to miss about the Olympics is that Coke commercial with the weird/cute little birds.

Over on CBC, the anchorwoman whose name I forget prefaced the video of that moment with a comment along the lines of, "... and this is where he loses his mind."

Yup.

We couldn't stop laughing about him. Rumpled pants, unbuttoned jacket, clueless look. My goodness. Chris Farley indeed.

Is it not possible to have happy moments even under a totalitarian regime? Maybe they were happy to have all these stars in their country. I loathe my government, doesn't mean I hate my country.

As soon as I saw Jackie Chan, I started hoping for a Stephen Chow sighting. I didn't see him, though.

I loved listening to Ato Boldon commentate on track and field. Not only was he totally enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but his remaining trace of an accent was very charming. He is also very cute.

ETA: Misty May-Treanor is going to be on "Dancing With the Stars" this season. How is it that I haven't heard about this before? I know NBC wouldn't have mentioned it, but why haven't I seen it elsewhere?

I see your point. I've just been very cynical about the games, and assumed the worst at pretty much every point.

No, you're right - he was kissing his boyfriend. I totally wouldn't have caught it myself, except that I'd just watched this video, which has all of Matthew's dives, the medals ceremony, and him running up to the stands for the kissing. D'aww.

My sadness over the end of the Olympics is being mollified by the start of the US Open (MOAR TENNIS PLS), but there is a definite, disappointing lack of speedos in this competition.

I was so sad when I got home tonight and there were no Olympics to turn to. :-(

Me too. Perhaps we should modify this thread and call it the Olympics Withdrawal Support Group.

Yeah, there is nothing to watch except for the DNC. I live in Denver and I don't even have an interest, I just want to watch gymnastics.