伦敦奥运上中国式的不高兴 – Chinese cynicism about the London Olympics – English

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The London Olympics are coming to an end, but so far I’ve only watch a game of Men’s basketball, China against Spain. After, I heard that had to say goodbye to London after competing but lost in five games during the preliminary games. Compared to Liu Xiang, China’s famous hurdler, nicknamed “China’s Flying Man”, China’s Men’s basketball team indeed is inferior.

Some people was unhappy with Liu Xiang – the person bearing the number 1356 with special significance – who fell during the hurdles in the foggy city. However, they might be even more unhappy when I put them down, metaphorically with a bucket of cold water. People were already forming cliques on Chinese website, waging a full full fledged war, but this internal conflict naturally result in indigestion. Thus, there is a need for broader global perspectives. In consideration since the London Olympics 28th July opening ceremony, there was constant blunders, if something has been labelled as negative or otherwise, a connotation is then attached to it – this is in regards to four years ago when Rogge appraised the Beijing Olympics as “truly exceptional” – Therewith this argument, in regards to the reasons to Liu Xiang’s incident, an “inside information” was exposed by netizens:

Liu Xiang took seven steps before attempting to clear is first hurdle that was supposed to be 13.72 metres in height. However, Britain used the British measuring system (inches) and set the hurdle to 13.85 metres, an additional 13 centimetres that resulted in Liu Xiang’s failure to complete the first hurdles in the heat.

This story was formally denied, but though teh issue managed to dodge the first bullet, it could still be a reference point for future debates. ““老日不落帝国”治下的伦敦很快就成了中文互联网上的犬类 动物生殖的后代，“乱伦”现象在方块字的言辞指代中进入高潮，结论也是麻溜的事儿。“In fact, this isn’t the first time since the Olympic Games that London had provoked China.

A signboard cautioning Chinese reporters to not casually take pictures; once during the medal presentation ceremony, China’s flag was not raised at equal height with another country’s competitor who achieved the same medal; questioning of China’s media “rumours” stemming from historical reasons; being labelled as “pessimistic competition” due to techniques and tactical arrangements; referees subjective scoring resulting in a Chinese athlete (Chen YiBing) losing out of a gold medal…… Yes, there’s many such examples. Do these westerners have prejudices against the Chinese? Are they secretly worried about the unexpected rise of China? Are they jealous that China have the most gold medals? Is the eight-nation alliances joining forces to intimidate China who is once again making a comeback? As they ponder about the issue, the more amiss it seems. The more amiss it seems, the more resentment they feel. Consequently, the Chinese websites exploded with a sentence: I, China am not happy!

Traditional media had found an exciting story, and every media outlet was onto the issue: People’s Daily reported “London Olympic’s constant mistakes”, The China Youth Daily followed up and reported “Pride and Prejudice in the complaints”, Beijing Times headlined “Double standard detrimental to fairness and justice”, while YangTse Evening Paper represented the world’s cry for injustice by depicting a magnanimous Chen YiBing silhouette against the referee’s despicable and shameless decision to curry favour with next year Olympic Games host. Four years ago, they were chummy with China, but there was a quick change of attitude. Nonsense! That year, we were the host of the Olympic Games, this year in contrary when we came from a far paying a visit, we were given dirty looks, how can we be happy?

In Taiwan during the 1980s, Lung YingTai once posed a question: Chinese people, why are you not angry? Some 20 years later, this question when applied in Mainland China, had to have a word changed: Chinese people, why are you always angry? From the 1990s “China can say No” to a few years ago “China us unhappy”, the subject to vent this frustration has never changed – they always come from the west. However, if we must seek an explanation for the target of the frustrations, it seems we could also formulate an answer from the situation: the only similarities Americans and Chinese have is that both parties could swear at the U.S President. Not only because it carries no risk, but it also is an opportunity to enhance national unity.

The Olympic Games today is overseen with “Fair, Just and Open” competition to pursue “higher, faster and stronger” results. However, commercial and political involvement will more or less deviate the Olympic Games from its original pure and honest track, this is an undeniable objective fact. In reality, during the progress of the claims of inappropriate decisions, it was not only the athletes from the China’s Olympic team that were reprimanded by the referees.As for the doubts, westerners Ben Johnson and Marion Jones also suffered incredible vocal opposition after their wins, and was found to have been taking performance enhancing drugs. However, from the start to the end, Canada and America did not claim aloud: Why is the whole word against me, I am not happy! ““Although “Nature” magazine eventually published a statement of apology, but this is far from being a reason for shouting of victories and rejoicing in front of other people: creating a virtual enemy then celebrating victories, since before, only Don Quixote was capable of doing that.”

Bringing cynicism that the whole world is against you while watching the Olympics is very tiring. “This is because in every tiny detail, there has to be a combined effort to make bold assumptions between personal emotions and underlying national patriotism.” Consequently, watching a game will leave you a reason to feel unhappy. However, in the Chinese’s cynicism, not every Chinese individual are cynical, it is an emotional cause. “Similar to the 2009 National Day parade in Chang Ping: there were no facial expressions on the soldiers and citizens’ face. At this time, though with million of soldiers and a daunting atmosphere, there are seen as an individual, the collective disappears.” Within the Chinese’s cynicism, similarly, there’s no one individual, but it’s an issue that has been debated by both public and politics. Consequently, elevating and creating a unified national expression.

It reminds me of a girl called ‘He’ in my class during college, who was always melancholy and sad when she was interacting with boys, it was hard to catch a glimpse of a cheerful face. As time passed, a nickname circulated amongst us: “Boss He – meaning “why the boss with a straight face” (this is a play of the Chinese words in the name).” To be honest, if I’ll let this burst of “Chinese cynicism” to bother me from time to time, I would rather face “Boss He’s” face, because at least from her face, I could see her behaviors and expressions.

Source: 1510, 9th August 2012