Here’s a Web video preview of Yao’s interview that will appear on CNN’s “Talk Asia” program this weekend.

For show times, you can go to CNN’s Talk Asia site here.

I’ve gone ahead and converted the times for the folks in the U.S. All times are Central time:

Friday, August 1st – 6:30pm CDT
Saturday, August 2nd – 10:00am CDT
Saturday, August 2nd – 7:30pm CDT
Sunday, August 3rd – 2:30am CDT
Sunday, August 3rd – 8:00am CDT

For a written CNN interview of Yao, click here.

For Raymond’s translation of a related interview, click here.

Raymond, our YMM correspondent in China, has found the following interesting tidbits.

Here’s a link to an article about Chinese President Hu Jintao‘s visit to the National Sports Bureau yesterday to talk to his country’s athletes. During his visit to the Chinese basketball national team, he asked Yao about the status of the rehab on his foot.

Below is a video that gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the preparation of various Chinese national teams, like gymnastics, synchronized swimming, weight lifting, table tennis, basketball, and volleyball. The Yao Ming piece is from the 7:40 to 8:40 minute mark.

Below is another video that has some behind-the-scenes clips of the charity short films for the Sichuan earthquake that internationally famous Chinese director Chen Kaige took with Yao Ming as the leading actor. The shorts will be publicly released in China nationwide within the week.

Raymond has another translation of an article written about Yao’s outlook on the tough pairings the Chinese have in the Olympics, which now includes Greece and Germany!

Raymond has done a fantastic job translating the most recent interview with Yao Ming after China’s victory over Russia in the FIBA Stankovic Continental Cup tournament. In the interview, Yao appraises his own performance in the tournament, gives his view of the national team and his teammates, and assesses China’s chances in the Olympics.

You can check it out here.

Raymond has translated a couple of articles, one where Yao’s trainer Anthony Falsone says that Yao’s conditioning during Chinese National Team scrimmages is poor, as described in this first article. It will take some time, but everyone is satisfied with his progress so far.

In the second translated article (directly underneath the first one), despite Yao’s conditioning issues, he is expected to get some playing time in the FIBA Stankovich Continental Cup that starts July 17th. As Raymond points out, this contradicts an interview last week that Rockets’ assistant trainer Keith Garnett gave where he thought Yao would start playing at the end of the month in the FIBA Diamond Cup. So perhaps Yao and the Chinese team think waiting that long won’t give him enough time to gel with the team before the Olympics start next month.

Yao held a presser today in China in which he said:

– he’s about 80% healed
– he’ll be able to play full-court basketball in mid-July
– he has a 50/50 chance of playing in the Stankovic Cup starting July 17th
– much, much more

Click here for more details and photos from the press conference.

Raymond has translated another article on Yao’s rehabilitation in Houston, which goes into detail about his training regimen, including sprinting! It’s so exhausting, when Yao gets home, he goes straight to sleep.

Click here for the translation.

About a week ago, Yao conducted an audio interview with National Public Radio where he talks about the earthquake, his familiarity with that area, how he’s sometimes misunderstood by some Americans, and the politicization of the Olympic games.

Click here to launch the player that will stream the interview.

Note: the interviewer asks Yao about his donation of $70,000 U.S. The one thing not mentioned in this interview is the 2 million RMB he donated in China.

In case you missed it, Raymond has done another translation, this time of an interview Yao did in Houston with Chinese publication Titan Sports.

In this piece, we learn more about:

* How badly Yao wants to get back to China with all that’s going on there
* Yao’s continued rehab, which includes jogging and increased weight training
* His drinking of green tea to help control his weight
* How much he perspires during his workouts
* The high-percentage of left-handed hook shots he now makes compared to a few years ago
* How many free throws he is required to make after his workouts (you won’t believe how many he made in a row one time)
* and much more!

Speaking of hard work, I want to thank Raymond again for his 3 hours of work in translating this piece.

Today Yao Ming held a pretty cool virtual press conference with members from the media located in Houston, New York, Beijing and San Jose that allowed him to see all the reporters on one screen.

In the interview, Yao talked about how his goal for the Chinese team is to advance to the next round of their Group, which means they would have to finish in the top 8 among 12 teams. Click here for more photos from the press conference, as well as more details about his hopes and plans for the summer.