{"id":161941,"date":"2013-08-23T10:20:21","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T17:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=161941"},"modified":"2013-08-23T10:20:21","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T17:20:21","slug":"li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/","title":{"rendered":"Li Na, China\u2019s Tennis Rebel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/08\/25\/magazine\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel.html?pagewanted=all&#038;_r=0\"><strong>The New York Times has a lengthy profile of tennis star Li Na<\/strong><\/a>, including her journey from child prodigy to winner of the French Open. After rebelling against China&#8217;s state-sponsored sports system, Li is now working with coach Carlos Rodriguez in hopes of cracking the world&#8217;s top three tennis ranking:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Despite China\u2019s desire to have Li embody the country\u2019s ambitions, she has made it clear that she plays for herself as much, if not more, than for her homeland. \u201cWhen people say that I represent the nation,\u201d she told me later, \u201cthat is too big a hat for me to wear.\u201d Li\u2019s independent streak is part of what makes her resonate deeply with China\u2019s younger generation, who have nicknamed her Big Sister Na. But for the country\u2019s leaders (be they national, athletic or media), this is a fundamental challenge to the way the Chinese Communist Party has rallied its subjects for 64 years.<\/p>\n<p>Li said she didn\u2019t see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sportsbusinessdaily.com\/Global\/Issues\/2013\/07\/04\/People-and-Pop-Culture\/Li-Na-Sun-Yang.aspx\">the People\u2019s Daily editorial<\/a>. Rodriguez forbids her, as best he can, from reading media coverage during tournaments, and Jiang acts as sentry to shield her from articles that might affect her mood. Still, when the coverage stings, Jiang tries to soothe her. \u201cWe Chinese have a saying: \u2018For any hero, half will compliment, half will slander,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cI tell her to forget the attacks, the pressure, the expectations. But it\u2019s hard to forget. We\u2019re only human.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Li tried to be lighthearted when I asked her about the Chinese press: \u201cIn the past, I used to be really bothered by [bad stories]. Now I just think that perhaps [the Chinese media] think that I\u2019m not famous enough, so they want to help me out.\u201d Her laugh sounded hollow.<\/p>\n<p>Li has become a lightning rod in China, provoking a conversation about the role of freedom \u2014 and patriotism \u2014 in sports and society. When the editorial came out, her fans angrily defended her right to be herself in an online debate that consumed Chinese microblogs. \u201cAt the beginning, I would be affected by everybody\u2019s expectations, but I came to realize that people were just projecting their own dreams onto me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not a saint. I, too, am an ordinary person. I have my ups and downs. So all I can do is focus on doing my job well.\u201d She added: \u201cI really, truly think that I am just an athlete. I can represent nothing but myself.\u201d [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/08\/25\/magazine\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel.html?pagewanted=all&#038;_r=0\"><strong>Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In recent days, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/sport\/china\/article\/1298557\/li-na-faces-scrutiny-over-fiery-temper\">the Chinese media has criticized Li Na<\/a> for her &#8220;bad temper.&#8221; Read<a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/china\/li-na\"> more about Li Na <\/a>via CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times has a lengthy profile of tennis star Li Na, including her journey from child prodigy to winner of the French Open. After rebelling against China&#8217;s state-sponsored sports system, Li is now working with coach Carlos Rodriguez in hopes of cracking the world&#8217;s top three tennis ranking: Despite China\u2019s desire to have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":161942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,20,14744,14745,14746,5],"tags":[14697,1641,4485,5658],"class_list":["post-161941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-culture","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-society","tag-li-na","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-womens-sports","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Li Na, China\u2019s Tennis Rebel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Li Na, China\u2019s Tennis Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times has a lengthy profile of tennis star Li Na, including her journey from child prodigy to winner of the French Open. After rebelling against China&#8217;s state-sponsored sports system, Li is now working with coach Carlos Rodriguez in hopes of cracking the world&#8217;s top three tennis ranking: Despite China\u2019s desire to have [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-23T17:20:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/images22.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sophie Beach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sophie Beach\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sophie Beach\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/7f19e31b674d57a7dc20aab8e908c663\"},\"headline\":\"Li Na, China\u2019s Tennis Rebel\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-23T17:20:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-23T17:20:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/\"},\"wordCount\":442,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/08\/li-na-chinas-tennis-rebel\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/images22.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Li Na\",\"sports\",\"Tennis\",\"women's sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"China &amp; 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