From: yangy@ils.unc.edu (Yanqiu Yang)
Subject: Re: The "new" outlook on China
Summary: Olympics and Sterotypes
Organization: UNC Office of Information Technology
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 23:21:38 GMT

In article <zlmm1=f.kemnitz@netcom.com>, kemnitz@netcom.com (Greg Kemnitz) writes:
> It appears that the Olympics is the first time that many Chinese in the US
> have been exposed to large doses of the new post-Tiananmen American perspective
> on China: from being "our" Commies, China has become "the last of the
> Stalinists".  And as the last of the Stalinists, China has to have a "sports
> machine" befitting a totalitarian dictatorship, whose abuses will be discussed
> at length.
	
	I found Americans are very ideological. If they don't have enemies,
they have to create one. Now it's China's turn to be the supposed enemy of
U.S. So, China has to have a "sports machine", its atheletes must be using
steroids, they overachived. This is totally absurd sterotype due to ideo-
logical reasons.

> The current coverage of Chinese athletes is essentially identical to the
> coverage of Russian and other Eastern European athletes during the Cold War:
> insinuations of steroid abuse, stories about being spirited off to remote
> training camps far away from family and friends at a tender age, etc.  Many of
> these are true, but the achievements of the individual athletes should
> not be diminished.
> 
> China *does* have an Olympic sports machine, but so do many of the world's
> countries - certainly all countries which do well in the Olympics have
> national Olympic sports machines of one sort or another.
> 
> It seems bizarre that NBC's Olympic coverage is even more flag-waving than 
> Olympic coverage was during the Cold War - one would think they would have
> outgrown such nonsense.  In the US, it is to be expected that American athletes
> will be featured over others, but the annoying comments by the announcers seem
> to get out of hand.
> 
> I've often wondered if the Olympics should abandon national affiliations and
> have the athletes compete as individuals - the ugly jingoism that oozes forth
> at Olympic time is distracting and annoying, and doesn't seem to be relevant
> to the high-minded goals of the Olympic movement.
> 
> The most annoying thing will be the politicians hoping to be seen with the
> "winners" to cover up their failings: George Bush will be seen with Pablo
> Morales at the White House Rose Garden, and Fu Mingxia and Zhuang Yong
> will certainly have photo ops with Li Peng and his pals at the Zhongnanhai.
> 
	First, I would like to point out that world's largest sports machine
is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the training complex of U.S.
Olympic Committee is. I see nothing wrong with sports machine. The reason
why Americans made such a big fuss over sports machine was that they got
beaten badly by these machines, first Russians, then intolerably by East
Germans, and they can do nothing about it. Because Americans are not 
interested in Olumpics when they cannot win. They are more interested in
NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball. They call the champions of these league
"world champion", which is quite arguable.
	I am fed up with NBC coverage of Olympics. Totally out of balance,
out of proportion. We are watching a tour of the Dream Team, whose only
mission is to take the medal. Any event in which Americans are not favorite
to win simply does not exist. They didn't tell you who won the gold medal
in a event an American won a silver. They don't show the flags of other
countries in the victory ceremony, they totally blacked out other winners
in all ceremonies I have seen. What a shame!
	When Zhuang Yong won the gold in 100m freestyle, Chicago Tribune
hinted that she used steroids, which was a typical unresponsible
jounalism and racial sterotype. They used to look at us as weak and submissive,
they cannnot accept the fact we can beat them. Their  last weapon is
slandering. I remembered an AP reporter making fun of Asian male atheletes in
Seoul Olympics, saying that the best Asian male 200m sprinter cannot outrun
Griffith-Joyner, the female 200m record holder, which was unfortunately
true. What surprised me is that he felt free to make such racist and sexist
commemnts. Because in their heart they are superior to us, both mentally
and physically. 
 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china