Chinese Basketball Phenom Debuts in Houston

Basketball fans throughout China tuned in to watch their very own superstar Yao Ming make his NBA debut with the Houston Rockets last week.

In Shanghai, Yao's hometown, hundreds of fans turned out to watch Yao's second appearance with the Rockets on a big-screen TV at a downtown hotel. The game, which saw the Rockets defeat the Toronto Raptors 88-76, was shown live early Sunday morning.

Far surpassing his first game as a Rocket, during which this year's No. 1 draft pick went scoreless, Yao entered the game in the middle of the first quarter and finished the night with eight points, four rebounds and one block.

The cheering inside the stadium was incessant, but Yao also enjoys tremendous support back in China. "There are a billion people in China who are going to give him the biggest boost possible," Zhang Wei, a member of Yao's old team, the Shanghai Sharks, told the Associated Press.

Kiriyama Award Winners Announced

Winners of the 7th annual Kiriyama Prize, which recognizes fiction and non-fiction books that help people better understand the countries of the Pacific Rim, were announced last week.

Canadian novelist Rohinton Mistry took the award in the fiction category for his third book, "Family Matters".

Khoo Thwe, a 35-year-old Burmese immigrant now living in London, took top honors in the non-fiction category for his memoir, "From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey."

The winners will split $30,000. The prize is co-sponsored by the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Institute and the University of San Francisco's Center for the Pacific Rim.

Financial Times Plans Asian Edition

Advertising dollars have plummeted this year and print publications are facing major cuts, but the London-based Financial Times is faring well enough to plan an Asian edition, slated for a 2003 debut.

Editor Andrew Gowers told the British newspaper the Press Gazette that the Financial Times is profitable and the online companion, FT.com, will break even this year, setting the stage for expansion.

The newspaper already prints in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia and has 13 correspondents in addition to stringers are in place throughout Asia.