Zhongguo
The Olympics are always a time to bask in the collective glow of human aspiration and achievement (or wallow in the self-pity of lazy, unfocused giver-up-ish-ness). You can get teary-eyed about the Chinese gymnast who broke his ankle, performed terribly four years ago, and then worked the parallel bars for a 10 (or close enough, now that it’s all confusing).
And you can wonder why some people keep going against all odds (Dara Torres), or seemingly against no odds (Michael Phelps), when I can hardly get myself to the gym four times a week.
But Dick and I have noticed a few new things this time around. Last night as we watched ’the American’ win his first gold medal (of these Games), Dick remembered the first time he realized that America is not in every game/match/heat at every sporting event. He said as a kid he thought America was really, really dominant, and I argued that, as far as medal counts go, “we” are definitely contenders. But Dick’s point was that, once we were in a foreign country during the Olympics or Tour de France or something, and the commentators and cameras were all trained on some foreign-sounding athletes. Huh? Who ARE these guys?
So this morning I was watching the America – China mens basketball game, and two things struck me as really unfair. Someone should write a letter. First, the Chinese men’s jerseys say “China” on them, at the Beijing Olympics. I’m not an international affairs student, but I think I heard somewhere that they speak a language other than English in China. Like, one with characters or something? And I’m guessing that they have some characters for their country’s name that don’t look like C-H-I-N-A.
Also, the NBC commentators were very impressed by China’s good start here at the Games. Because their basketball team only lost to the Americans by 31 points. I don’t know. Somehow saying that it was a really good game for you because you only lost by 31 points sounds just a bit, um, patronizing. But seriously, I want to know why Yao Ming is playing on the Chinese team. Isn’t he an American? I swear I saw him on TV last year.
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Tags: america, beijing olympics, china, michael phelps, olympics, tiananmen square, yao ming
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Yao is Chinese. He was drafted by the NBA,but one of the conditions the Chinese gov’t gave him to allow him to go to the USA to play in the NBA was that he plays for them in the Olympics.
Also, these days, anybody who doesn’t make the team in their home country shops around to find a country with lax citizenship rules. IE: the NBA player born in the USA, whose grandparents were German, so he’s playing on the German team. It’s kinda sad really.
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I imagine that is just regulated by the Olympics’ choice of two official languages: French and English. But I would say that the Chinese should have also included the characters as well on their uniforms. Anyway, I do take issue with the choice of languages. If the rationale is universality, French doesn’t cut it. I dare say a very, very small percentage of the world speaks French, and unless the French start having more babies pretty quickly, that’s the way it’s going to be for a long time. Under the universality rationale, Chinese or Spanish is a much better choice. If the rationale is a historical one, then Greek or Latin is the way to go. If the rationale is high number of medals, then maybe German(?) (in addition to English). Anyway, you get the point.
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Lorraine — Your points on citizenship are interesting. I’m wondering if I could make the Irish curling team?
So, at the risk of being even less funny, that was a joke about Yao Ming; I know he’s Chinese. Even if he does wear English-language jerseys.
Carolina — Yes, the English = (advertising dollars?) is a poor rationale.
Yes, your coverage is great. (And, as I said on Twitter, your coverage of the Edward’s affair was quite extensive. Kudos to you.)
As for the official languages of the Olympics, since they are both languages I speak, French and English work for me. Speaking French is probably more historical than anything else. But English? People all over the world speak English. When I was in Finland there were a number of huge business international business meetings held at the hotels we stayed at and they were all conducted in English. English is (currently) the most popular second language in the world.
I don’t think it will last though. Mandarin Chinese is the new black. And, as Costas says, China is one-fifth of the world’s humanity.
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Very well put! And I have to agree with Lorraine – it is sad that athletes can just shop around, makes you lose that sense of pride in your country huh?
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Here’s a little tidbit of Chinese trivia for you. The characters for China mean “Middle/Center Land/Kingdom” because like all nations they believe they are the center of the world. (As another FYI, in Mulan, at the end when the emperor is speaking to Mulan he says “Heaven smiles down on the Middle Kingdom” meaning, of course, China).
Did you hear them say that Dara Torres swam in her first postpartum meet 3 weeks after her baby was born and she was competing at the international level only 3 months after her baby was born? Now that makes me really depressed since my baby is 4 weeks old as of yesterday and I am still wearing maternity pants. BTW, you can watch some of the other countries competing (even if they are not playing USA) on some of the other channels that are carrying some of the Olympics. To be honest though, I don’t care that much that the Aussie women’s basketball team beat Brazil.
CW — I feel really dumb because I’ve seen this Costa guy’s (girls?) name a lot recently and have no idea who that is.
Krystal — Not sure I buy into being proud of my country due to Olympic representation, anyway.
Brock — Mulan is the best Disney movie. Ever. Well, it would be if it had Hayley Mills and Dean Jones in it, but you get my point.
Melinda — Yeah, well, my baby is 21 months, and I’m still wearing, okay, not maternity pants, but my fat pants, anyway.
Don’t get me started on China. I hope they win so they’re athletes are okay.
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Hhhm. Well at least you’re winning. We’re still waiting for our first win/medal up here. I think english is supposed to be the international language of the Olympics…I think. But really really good point.
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