Guest post from Shanghai-based Xiaodi Zhang, product management executive at eBay and co-founder of HopStix, a new China travel review site for sharing about food and travel. Also posted on the HopStix blog as “He’s Not Superman After All.” She also left a super-insightful comment on my earlier post about the Online Evisceration of David Brooks and was inspired to write this post.
By now, everyone knows Liu Xiang, China’s favorite Olympian, pulled out of the Olympics. In noticeable pain, he limped off the field yesterday after a false start in the 110 meter qualifying round and ended his Olympic career in the most anti-climatic fashion. His departure left an entire nation in shock.
Even the CCTV journalist was in tears
The live broadcast from the stadium was interrupted when the CCTV journalist had to pause in mid-sentence, turn her head and compose herself. Mind you, this is not NBC and Bob Costas. This came from the most regulated network in the world, where journalists are trained to speak only what’s on the teleprompter. Her breakdown demonstrated just how emotional this moment represented to Chinese everywhere. Pictures of audience members and Olympic volunteers in tears have been flooding the internet, and people can’t stop debating about his sudden departure. Some people feel cheated and angry, but most people are overwhelmed with disappointment. When I saw my cousin last night, I asked her if she cried. She replied yes, and then started crying again, set off by my question.
Difference between Tyson Gay and Liu Xiang
With all due respect to Tyson Gay and his fans, but I have a feeling that no one shed a tear in the US when he didn’t make it to the 100 meter finals two days earlier. To Americans, Tyson Gay’s win or loss was ultimately his own. His performance did not represent glory or defeat for an entire nation.
In China, however, one athlete’s Achilles injury is felt by an entire nation. To understand why Chinese would respond this strongly, just go back to the moment when Liu Xiang won the gold medal four years ago.
Liu Xiang’s Athens medal was framed as a victory for the Chinese race
After the race, he proudly announced to the world that “It is a proud moment not only for China but for Asia and all people who share the same yellow skin color…. I think we Chinese can unleash a yellow tornado on the world.” (more Liu Xiang quotes here) Even to him, the medal was not merely a personal accomplishment. Rather, his gold medal was a national achievement, even one for an entire continent and an entire race.
The fact that Liu Xiang comes from China’s “me” generation, a product of the one-child policy, and grew up during a time of unparalleled prosperity, western influence and individualism, reflects how deeply entrenched the ideals of national pride and national unity are in China. For most Westerners, it might be hard to comprehend how a young, cocky hurdler can also be so nationalistic.
Where does this deep well of nationalism and pride come from? History.
Understanding it will require a brief detour to China’s history, but it will unlock the mystery of how a country of 1.3 billion people can stand united in face of foreign criticism (Olympic protests) and internal disaster (Sichuan earthquake).
China as we see it today at the Olympics has been deeply shaped by a collective sense of pride, shame and accomplishment rooted in its history. National pride comes from China’s rich history (inventing paper, gunpowder, movable type, AND the compass, which were all on display at the Opening Ceremony), shame at its failure to stop foreign oppression during the first half of the twentieth century, and accomplishment at how far the country has come during the second half.
When Mao Zedong came into power, he famously declared “Today, the Chinese people have finally stood up!” But Chinese knew that the country had not really stood up and would not be able to stand up for another forty years.
So, when China finally re-opened its doors to the world in 1978 and re-entered the world stage in the Olympics in 1984, the Olympic Games became a barometer for China’s growth. Each four years brought new gold medals, new glories, new hope, and renewed sense of national pride. China could finally “stand up”. But many athletes have come and gone before Liu Xiang.
Why has Liu Xiang meant so much to the Chinese?
The answer is clear. Liu Xiang did not medal in ping-pong or men’s gymnastics. Liu Xiang medaled in Track & Field, an arena that China never even hoped to be competitive in. By accomplishing what seemed to most as the impossible, Liu Xiang captured the national imagination and brought a new sense of hope and possibility to China. He represented “new” China, China’s future, China’s Olympics. The possibility that he could repeat the feat in China’s Olympics, on Chinese soil, became what everyone fervently anticipated in the Beijing Games.
After my cousin grabbed some tissues and sat back down on the couch, I asked her why it was so emotional for her. She sighed, “I was really looking forward to it. One minute, I heard the race was about to start, and then he pulled out so suddenly”. She also added, choking up some more, “we shouldn’t blame him. We knew it would be hard for him to win again, but we just wanted to see him run.”
Photo courtesy of bbs2008.163.com and ChinaSMACK. More photos of reactions at ChinaSMACK.
UPDATE 8/20 from Elliott:
China Digital Times shared Xiaodi’s account and also highlighted a New York Times article that talks about the commercial implications of Liu Xiang’s withdrawal. China Herald also asked the provocative question “What killed Liu Xiang’s Olympics ambitions?” Fons Tuinstra quotes his first coach as reported by the Telegraph:
I am saddened by Liu Xiang’s exit,” Mr Gu said at his office in Shanghai. “I think it is because of the intense training. If he had been more relaxed the injury might not have been so bad.
“I have experienced in the past the great pressure that government officials exert on the athletes as well as the coach, and that they demand a gold medal, otherwise it is meaningless. Liu Xiang is still a young boy and he has been put under a bit too much expectation.”
UPDATE 2 8/20 from Elliott:
Marketwatch Olympic Blog by Bill Bishop suggests that things may not be as they appear:
I watched his withdrawal live and felt very bad for him. He looked to be in real pain. But after talking to some of my Beijinger friends over the last 24 hours, I am half-convinced the more is more to this story. All my friends believe this was set up by the track team and its affiliated management company that helps manage (and takes a cut of) the business side of their athletes’ lives.
The conspiratorial thinking goes that Liu and the team knew he was not in good enough form to beat Cuba’s Dayron Robles, and so it was better to not race than to lose. Both are humiliating, though an injury is more sympathetic and face-saving than a loss, and, importantly, might maintain some of Liu’s attractiveness to marketers. Part of the “evidence” is that the team held a news conference within 30 minutes of the withdrawal, making it looked like it was prepared in advance.
UPDATE 8/21 from Elliott:
WSJ China Journal shares that sponsors are kicking into action to put the best spin on the situation:
In terms of advertisements, Nike was quick to respond with full page ads in domestic papers…The translation, from a version of the ad running in today’s English-language China Daily:
Love Competition
Love risking your pride
Love winning it back
Love giving it everything you’ve got
Love the glory
Love the pain
Love sport even when it breaks your heart
Photo courtesy of Beijing News and Andrew Lih (fuzheado)
This from a sports nut who started following Liu Xiang and predicted his gold medal hope in 2001 — but I also predicted the same about 关英楠，who unfortunately peaked at 21 and 22, plagued by injuries in subsequent years and never regained her top form. Her 6.95m long jump mark can easily put her into medal hunt today.
I agree with what you have said about what Liu Xiang stands for. It’s pretty rare for Chinese or “people who share the same yellow skin color” to excel in T&F (especially male athletes), but it’s not unprecedented. Japan’s 南部忠平, Taiwan/ROC’s 杨传广，China’s 朱建华 (and a couple others) were all world record holders at one point or the other. Asians are getting noticeably bigger and taller due to improving diet. I would venture to guess with proper training, you will see world-class athletes in some T&F events. But as to closing in Bolt’s 9.69s, I will be shocked if any white and “yellow” athletes get remotely close to it.
What are you talking about? All we need to do is give one of our children the surname: 雷
As a retired athlete myself, one of the major influencing factors in injuries is over-training. I have no doubt that he was overtrained by his coaches, and with the pressure of 1.3 billion people with SUCH high expectations of him, it would be a Miracle if he didn’t get injured, burned out, or choked during the olympics. It’s always easier to become a champion from the ground up than it is to retain your title, and with such high expectations (you said it yourself, people ALL over CHina were tearing up and sobbing about it so that shows you right there and there what HIGH expectations people had going in) it is not surprising this happened. It would take a mind of utter steel to be able to handle such pressure and keep their title.
It’s a shame though, competition is always the best when the best are there to push everyone else, win or lose, it would have made for a more exciting match.
In a very real sense, Liu Xiang was a victim of the media machine, which created overly high hopes for him to get not just a medal, but a gold medal. Anything else would not have been enough, and he would have been blasted for failing to meet general expectations, and would have lost out on millions in corporate sponsorship.
So far, China has captured many more gold medals than the US, which has more in the overall medal count. Part of this is because the Chinese athletes have been under tremendous pressure to win golds, pressure which comes from officials whose KPIs (key performance indicators) and opportunities to rise in government ranks are based on the medal counts of the athletes they manage. This is clearly referred to in the Telegraph article above.
Part of being part of the “Me generation” means that athletes need to be recognized not as just medal machines, corporate sponsorship vehicles, subjects of national pride and superiority, and official career advancement vehicles, but they are also human beings who react differently to very intense pressure.
And sometimes, they just fail. If the Chinese media and general public recognize this about Liu Xiang, and take the pressure off him to do what they want, and instead let him do what he wants, the better it will be for him.
And for all Chinese, it will be a sign of greater maturity.
Marc, one of the “new” ideas Liu’s coach advocated to other coaches in China, is reducing training. There have been some promising young athletes in China (none as promising as Liu Xiang who owned the world junior record though) with very respectable marks at age 20ish, but they have a very high tendency to frame out in later years. The culprit in Liu’s coach’s opinion, is over-training. Also some of the training methods are more harmful than useful in the long run.
In my opinion, Liu’s problem is over-competing, kind of like what Nadal is doing. He could’ve benefited from a shutdown in 2007, in retrospect. It’s a shame because reportedly Liu has improved his raw speed. Given the Bird’s Nest’s fast track, I thought 12.75″ was in the card.
I think most Chinese people would agree that too much pressure has been placed on Liu Xiang, and a lot of Chinese have come out to blame the media and his sponsors. On the other hand, I find it fascinating that Liu Xiang never shied away from the attention, pressure or the glory. He was the one, who from the very beginning, chose to place national symbolism on himself. It was not some CCTV journalist or Communist Party member, but Liu Xiang himself, who said “It is a proud moment not only for China but for Asia….”
And when the next Liu Xiang appears in China, will this change? Will the athlete say “I am the greatest” or will China be “mature” enough to put aside national pride for the benefit of individualism? I don’t think that will happen unless you can undo two thousand years of Confucius teaching and China’s history. To most Chinese, being able to put up with the pressure and carry on your country’s pride is the “Mature” thing to do. Declaring that your glory is yours alone and asking for personal space would be completely “immature”.
In addition, for every Liu Xiang who might buckle under the pressure and over-training, there is a Guo Jingjing, who has also received unbelievable amount of pressure but managed to repeat her gold medal in 3-meter diving.
Fundamentally, the definition of maturity in this instance is based on cultural perspective and value system. Having spent the last twenty years in the US, I have tried to change this perspective time and time again. Honestly, I can’t even win in my own family. I don’t think China is going to change in my lifetime. This is how Chinese are, and its based on its history, culture and value system.
And I am not sure if it is fair or productive to judge the Chinese way as “immature”. This judgment is based on a Western value system. Like my Chinese friends constantly remind me, “China is China”. It’s an exasperating expression, but I think it might be more productive for the world to spend more time understanding what China really is instead of changing or judging it.
@Xiaodi–
I agree with you that the use of the term “mature” and “immature” is subjective, but perhaps it is based more on individualism than western cultural values. Chinese history and society has a proud history of respect for eccentric individualists from the intellectual classes. These include Zhuangzi, Laozi and continue down over more than 2,000 years.
Of course, this behavior does not fit in with the official narrative of Confucianism, which is all about knowing one’s place in society and not complaining, and has always been an ideology favored by any Chinese dynasty and regime, for very obvious reasons. This includes the present nominally Communist government.
This is why individualism is presented as being more western to contemporary Chinese and even western audiences. Individualism is not something invented in the west and is owned only by democracies; it has existed a long time in China too. It is just outside the mainstream, that’s all.
But that doesn’t make it any less real.
One thing that I am having a hard time explaining is that individualism and national pride are not mutually exclusive in China. There are great examples of strong independent minded thinkers, philosophers, artists, etc in China’s history and in China today.
To Chinese, you can be a strong individualist and a strong nationalist. When athletes like Liu Xiang aspire to win a medal for China or for the Asian race, that doesn’t mean these athletes are not strong individuals themselves. A lot of them are, but they still choose to accept a “greater” responsibility.
This is why I think it will be hard for China to completely change one day to only focus on personal achievements rather than national ones, because people are used to having both and don’t see any issues with their co-existence.
Hope that makes some sense…. :)
I am completely disappointed by my fellow Chinese’s over reaction. The extremely enthusiasm to Beijing Olympics is abnormal. It shows me a nation which has rich history but sadly currently has nothing to be proud of. It has to resort to holding a game and getting some medals in it. This is sad. A nation has no confidence. It has to make itself look pretty to impress others in order to assure itself it is doing all right. SAD SAD SAD!
It is a coming out party for China. However, does anyone in the world, apart from Chinese, care about whether China is the closet or not? No one would show extra respect to China even if it hold a most successful event in the entire human history. China has no more say in the international affairs than before no matter how spectacular this Olympics is. I hope my fellow Chinese can wake up and do what they can do to build a country where everyone can enjoy prosperity and freedom, rather than wasting their time over such a trivial issues, such as Olympics or someone’s withdrawal from a competition.
Does nobody else think that a comment like “this is a proud moment for China, indeed all of Asia” is slightly off and demonstrates the inherent racism of most of the Chinese population?
Imagine if a white athlete stood up and said “It is a proud moment not only for INSERT WESTERN WHITE MAJORITY COUNTRY HERE, but for all of Europe” as if to mean “yeah we put you in your place other races… who of you out there doesn’t seem to get just how racist the Chinese are, or actually, most of Asian countries?
Nice fake injury Liu Xiang. Glad you kept that VISA card deal.
Going to have to disagree with you there, Mike. If an athlete from a European country that has been struggling for the last 50 years playing catch up with the rest of the developed world stood up and said such a thing, I don’t think anyone would say they were racist, white majority or not.
Nice fake injury Liu Xiang. Glad you kept that VISA card deal.
This makes no sense whatsoever. It’s not like Liu Xiang is a fluke like Kenteris winning the 2000 200m Olympic gold with a very lackluster time, due to the decimation of the field by injuries and drug scandals. You are talking about the reigning Olympic and IAAF WC champions, whose 15th best time can easily medal this year. In the past few years, Liu purposely went to race in the US and Europe to compete with the top hurdlers in many occasions despite jetlag and unfamiliarity to the tracks, just to compete — and he won most of the races. And, he is only 25.
The closest I can think of is Retief Goosen’s implication of Tiger Woods faking his injury during the most recent US Open.
As to his endorsement. Don’t know about you. But if Liu manages a comeback, the quality of the story can be a marketer’s dream.
@mike – no, I think you are trying to read something into that statement that isn’t there. There might be other ideas embedded in Liu’s statement which I might not approve but racism isn’t one of them.
“But Chinese knew that the country had not really stood up and would not be able to stand up for another forty years.”
Yeah, I am sure they thought just that! Come on!
How ironic. When the Americans submerge their individuality for the good of the group, it’s called teamwork, or maybe it’s just double standards once again:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/08/25/SPFG12HL2J.DTL