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Entertainment Versus Glory
Despite Olympics, Beijing lacks daily enthusiasm for sports
Posted
at
10:42 am
by Michael Martina
Michael Martina
(click to enlarge)
Beijing residents watch the Chinese basketball team defeat Germany on Saturday.
Michael Martina
(click to enlarge)
Chinese fans line the streets on the campus of Tsinghua University as China's women's marathon contenders pass.
Saturday night on the streets of Old Beijing there was little evidence that Yao Ming and the Chinese basketball team were winning in a close game against Germany. While the battle on the court waged on, many vendors at small shops in the neighborhoods south of Gulou Street were parked in front of televisions with doors flung open to the night air, thoroughly engrossed in one of the many popular kung fu melodramas set in dynastic China. If the sets were tuned to the Olympics, the event of choice was badminton. Still, the subways were eerily quiet before tip-off, suggesting that many Beijingers were staying home, cheering their teams behind closed doors.
One thing is clear. Despite the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is not a sports town. That is to say, there are a number of unique Chinese pastimes, but crowding into large stadiums to watch people run and jump or kick, throw and otherwise move balls, typically is not one of them.
This makes the Chinese lead in Olympic Gold medals somewhat striking. Certainly, China wanted to be well represented on home turf. But what is it about gold medals that matters in a country where tea shopping is an infinitely more likely activity for visitors and residents alike than viewing a soccer match? To the average Chinese, the gold medal count is more important as a measure of national honor than of enthusiasm for athletics. As one man suggested while watching the Chinese basketball team defeat Germany on Saturday night, "China's favorite sport is one we are winning."
Of course, that statement is not altogether true. Soccer has a special cache among fans. Perhaps a successful Chinese soccer team, something that has been elusive given the country's relative emphasis on the sport, is attractive because of the weight it might carry in the international arena. Also, basketball has grown an impressive following in China, though the NBA is far more popular than the Chinese leagues, which lack pageantry, star power and media focus.
There has been some questioning of the manner in which China prepares for the Olympics. Many pundits in the U.S. are arguing that it is not the state's responsibility to pour immense resources into training athletes who compete on a global scale once every four years. Though a valid line of questioning, it seems something of a logical response from a nation accustomed to first place, but finding itself in second. Given the glory at stake on Chinese soil, such questions will take a back seat to gold, silver and bronze.
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