Fickle fans at the Olympics

I was in the Wukesong basketball arena last night watching the U.S. “redeem team” take on the Australians in Olympic basketball.

The arena was full and the game had already started. As I walked through a passageway, a roar was going up from the crowd. I rushed in to see who they were cheering for: Australia!

The first quarter was half over and the Australian players were giving these NBA all-stars a run for their money. And for the next 10-15 minutes contrary impulses ricocheted around the arena for Chinese fans. For one part, some hoped the Australians would be giant killers. A good part of the stadium cheered lustily for an Australian upset.

But by the second half, the Americans were running up the points. And every time, the U.S. side would tap in a three-pointer, the crowd roared. At one point, poster boy Kobe Bryant stole the ball from Australian player, zipped down the court, soared upward and spiked the ball into the basket. Roar! Kobe has a huge fan base in China.

So who are these Chinese fans rooting for? Have they made up their minds? It’s something I keep thinking about as I float in and out of arenas and stadiums. Obviously, they are rooting for the national athletes, who are doing extraordinarily well. But they are also there when Chinese athletes aren’t in competition.

My colleague Francesco Sisci, a correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Stampa, recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post talking about how his Chinese wife and other friends are rooting for American athletes.

Why do the Chinese cheer so loudly for swimmer Michael Phelps or basketball star Kobe Bryant? Why did the government choose the most American of China's sports stars, NBA hero Yao Ming, to be the standard-bearer of the Olympic team? If "pro-American" Italy had chosen an athlete playing in the United States to represent its Olympic team, it would have been heresy, a national scandal. But "communist" China did it, and "communist" party leader Hu Jintao, sitting on the rostrum of the "Bird's Nest" stadium, applauded it.

So what's the answer? For one, most top leaders choose to send their children to study in the United States, not Europe or Japan. Hu's son was married in the United States. China's late supremo, Deng Xiaoping, was proud that he had an American grandchild -- born in the United States and thus entitled to an American passport.

For many Chinese, America remains the gold standard -- even now that China holds $1 trillion of American debt. It's what China would like to be: rich, powerful and, yes, democratic, too. It's all part of the package, many Chinese people think. Globalization, the great phenomenon that's making China rich, isn't a vague idea here. It has a name: America. Without the United States there would be no globalization, no wealth for China. For that, the Chinese are grateful.

In fact, I find Chinese behavior in the Olympic stands containing complexities beyond this. For sure, some Chinese would like to beat the Americans in every way possible, and that means rooting for third nations that play against the U.S. teams.

At other times, I’ve seen them root for the underdog. That occurred in a Russia-Georgia beach volleyball match. The crowd was going for the little guy against someone they perceived as a bully.

Then there are the times Chinese root for those who play well. That happened at an Argentina-Brazil soccer game earlier this week. The crowd was for Argentina, which won 3-0.

Then an interesting thing happened: The crowd began chanting, “Xie Yalong, xia ke!" – which means, “Xie Yalong, take a hike!” Xier Yalong is president of the Chinese Football Association and a national whipping boy because Chinese love soccer but can’t seem to put together a decent team.

So there you have it: Sometimes Chinese fans root for the underdog. Sometimes they root for the dominant team. And sometimes they even chant against their own side if it doesn’t live up to expectations. There could be a political message in that.

Comments

[Sparkle]

Of course Chinese people would cheer for Michael Phelps, because he is the best. No one else in the swimming history has won so many gold in a single Olympics. He is a hero. If someone else, for say from Australia, did the samething he or she would be cheered too.

For Kobe Bryant, that is another story. Chinese people consider him, to be the next Michael Jordan. Although, Kobe Bryant is not upto the level yet. No body likes what US government does, but everybody enjoys NBA. And if it was Michael Jordan on that spot fans would go crazy. I mean really crazy.

[A B]

Or, maybe you just discovered that there are many "opinions" in China....

So much for them all thinking alike as Beijing would like to believe.

[on the other hand]

Or as the West would like to believe...

On a different note, not everyone in the US likes NBA. Some like college hoops better because those are real sport competitions, whereas NBA has too many cheats.

[shenqh]

They are not so brainwashed by CCP as westerners thought.

[bemis]

Or, Chinese people are NOT BRAINWASHED AT ALL. Contrary to what some Westerners ALLEGE -- they probably don't believe their own propaganda anyway.

[Douglas]

It's called a dunk.

[Pffefer]

Tim,

"There could be a political message in that."

What political message?

I find Francesco Sisci's observations very shallow. Nobody hates the US here, but it is not that popular either.

[bemis]

Tim's hoped-for "political message" (I t-h-e-e-n-k) is: how-to-topple-CCP-PLA-PRC? BIG PRIZE for him (fame? notoreity?) and other competing "journalists", if they succeed...

[fsc]

What's the point of this post? Change the word "chinese crowd" to another nation and it wouldn't even be written...why does China get special treatment?!~

[PaZhuLian]

I'm only here for some push-ups. What political message?

[sun bin]

all those in the list seems to be quite universal?

re: xie yalong.
it is not just disappointment, it is the general corruption of china's sports machine.
i.e. the more market oriented spoorts, the more value for corruption, and the bigger the gap between funding and results.
that is what i read from the chinese media

[nanheyangrouchuan]

No brainwashing? We can get back on to Taiwan, Tibet, S. Mongolia and E. Turkestan.

As for the changing moods of Chinese fans, "the mob is fickle..."

[bemis]

Hey, NAN-GROUCH! (Or whatever your name is): What on earth are you going to do next, now that Beijing Olympics have been so successful?