Reactions to Liu Xiang and the Nature of Chinese National Pride
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, writes on cnreviews.com:
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.
See also a report from the New York Times about the commercial consequence of Liu’s withdrawal:
Mr. Liu, 25, is China’s answer to Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, combined. His image can be seen on billboards in virtually every major Chinese city, and in global marketing campaigns for Nike. A life-size replica of him hurdling, decked in Nike gear, appears in Nike stores in the capital. A giant picture of him hangs in the Coca-Cola center on the Beijing Games’ Olympic green. Ads for Visa endow him with superhuman capabilities, showing him chasing a kangaroo.
“Liu Xiang represents the dreams of all the Chinese,” said Terry Rhoads, managing director at Zou Marketing, a Beijing sports marketing consultancy. “He’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime athletes.”
Which raises the questions: What will sponsors do now that he is no longer racing? And what about all those advertisements they may have been preparing to celebrate him winning gold at the Beijing National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest?
POSTED COMMENTS: 2 Responses
[...] 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.” Spread the word: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
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.