From: zzuo@iastate.edu (Zhiqi Zuo)
Subject: Re: Proud and Angry
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 05:33:05 GMT

In article <fortony.712459572@murphy> fortony@sonne.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>zzuo@iastate.edu (Zhiqi Zuo) writes:
>
>>In article <fortony.712455562@murphy> fortony@sonne.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>>>
>>>Sorry to hear it.  I was being quite serious.  If given a choice between
>>>watching a technically perfect but somewhat boring Chinese diver who's
>>>guaranteed to win and watching an older, flawed but spirited American
>>>diver, I'm going to make the second choice every time.  At least the
>>>American had expressions on her face.
>
>>Even though I finally find out that you were serious, I would like take 
>>your above statements as another joke. What kind of impressive expressions
>>had you observed in her, while many others might have missed? I was so 
>>dumb that I didn't notice the reason for which the coverage focused on her 
>>face for that long. 
>
>After a bad dive, you could read the sadness on her face.  After a good
>dive, you could tell that she was happy with herself.

I like many American movie stars, their performance skills can give me
the impression that I were a part of them. But in this aspect, not "her" 
please -- forgive me for forgetting her name. 

>The winning diver made technically perfect dives and got out of the
>water looking as if she were a bored robot.  Sure, she won the gold,
>but NBC is an American company broadcasting to America.  It's only
>natural for NBC to concentrate on that which Americans are interested
>in: interesting American competitors.  Relax a little.

What a pity! You must have missed her shyness, which she needs to overcome
at so young an age. She is only 13 and from another culture. I didn't 
complain about the poor coverage very seriously here, but I do think that 
some commentators are younger than 13 actually. The TV quality is really poor 
since we, more often than not, couldn't find non-american champions when 
American atheles failed in the same games. The commentators are silly for they
were not hesitate to show their narrow-mindness whenever the chances seemed
have come. I got quite relaxed, after I lost confidence in them. Anyway, 
they don't represent American people, many of whom have showed us their
cool judgements in these two .olympics newsgroups. 

  Next time, please don't forget to enjoy the performances by those 
close-to-perfect athelets. Thinking of their hard roads to the championship,
you will know the happiness must resides somewhere, deep in heart. If you
thought many of them are robots in the first place, you would surely miss
a lot later on. They also have hearts like you and me, I guess. Their 
umcomparable skillfulness make them different from us, enjoy that 
skillfulness since it is so rare. 

>>>I don't know the first thing about Olympic Diving.  I'm not watching
>>>it for the technical angle, I'm watching it for the human, competitive
>>>angle.  The Chinese diver could have been a robot, and nobody would
>>>have noticed.  Period.
>
>>I see. Let's go outside to watch those kids playing all kinds of games.
>>They are nearer to the real life, vivid, competitive and clumsy.
>
>The kids outside are not competing for their country.  Please.

I can understand your nice feeling. But the terrific chinese little girl
is also competing for China, a country. If she didn't deserve some 
compliment, at least she shouldn't have got the implied belittlement. 
What will the other peoples think, after they know what have been said to
their beloved athelets, on one of the best American TV broadcasting 
systems?  "They can't face other people's achievements!" What the "They"
represents may be very different, from one person to another. 

>>Maybe Litheuwan(?) will be the next.
>
>Lithuania, in English.

Yeah. Thanks.

Anyway, Relax more, there will be more interesting things coming out.

PS: I was told that BBC is very good, I wish I were in British. Well, NBC is 
still better than nothing.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china