Media and Sports in China

So, what's being said in Beijing? While I was unwell and stranded at the apartment without internet, I had a chance to watch one station on TV. Well, we have more than one channel; but, oddly enough, all but one is in Mandarin. Go figure.

I've been watching CCTV (I think it stands for China Central Television) International, which is broadcast in English. It is a news channel with traffic, weather, features and updates. They have foreigners and English speaking Chinese on the program. One program, Dialogue, has a host who poses questions to one or two guests. The question format goes like "Western media has been highly critical of (issue X). Most agree that this is unfair and shows the China-bashing attitude of the west. Your thoughts?" Yes, a little odd, like Martin Short's "Jimmy Glick", but it moves the conversation along.

First, the Chinese media is very concerned/interested in how it is being perceived by the West. They seem to want to be seen as "an emerging sports superpower". It almost seems like being "good" isn't good enough. They want to be dominant. For instance, they have an overwhelming lead in the race for Olympic gold medals, but the US has the lead (currently) in overall medals won. Having more people in the Top 3 seems less important than having the most people in first place. Individual excellence is regarded as better than general program strength. There is a saying that "When you're in second place, you're the first place loser." That is a reality in China. A silver is a failure. Chinese shooter Tan won bronze in Free Pistol and was derided in the press as "blowing" the match. (Tan's bronze medal has subsequently been upgraded to silver, since the North Korean shooter who "won", tested positive for beta-blockers and was sent home medal-less.)

Second, it isn't about participation: they're in it to win. The Chinese men's soccer team is, by international standards, not very good. The national question is about whether or not to quit the sport. "Go big or go home." If they can't win, then they will honestly consider withdrawing from the sport altogether. One of the UK commentators couldn't understand that philosophy, as soccer is THE sport in England, even though internationally, they haven't won in many years. Whether or not China will stay in soccer remains to be seen.

Third, China isn't as strong in team sports, as opposed to individual sports. This is believed to come back to its program philosophy of selection versus choice. In China, you don't pick a sport and join in. You are funnelled into sports at a young age, based on your physical characteristics and aptitudes. Once in a program, the system trains the hell out of you and weeds out people who can't handle competition. Eventually, top Chinese competitors emerge on the international scene. The view then is that this works fine for individual sports (shooting, archery, running, etc.) but there is a different dynamic in team sports. Cooperation, communication, skill diversity, etc. are harder to define at age 6.

Also, there isn't much of a recreational team sport culture here. Around the world, kids play soccer for fun. In England, the UK commentator mentioned that there are 1 million plus rec. players, which provide a huge talent pool for them. In China, through its selection program, has identified a significantly smaller percentage of England's pool. So, while China has won the overall population game, they're very far behind in the talent pool race. This reinforces the view that in China, sports is a career, not a past-time. (Once, Avie was asked by a Chinese shooter what she makes as an engineer. When he heard the reply, he couldn't understand why she would be involved with shooting. They don't love the sport for what it is, as much as for what it gives them: a demanding and challenging career, offering pay and relative comfort.)

What do I take from this: there is a belief that China can dominate in niche or individual sports (shooting) but will struggle when coming up against world sports (soccer/football or basketball). Then, we return to the question of whether China will pickup its ball and go home, or suck it up and figure out how to win in that realm.

Speaking of talent pools, China has a huge advantage overall. Look at Bejing. It has 13 million people (almost half of Canada) living here. In it, Beijing has 12,000 professional athletes, of which 44 were chosen to compete in the 2008 Olympics and 5 are/were medal winners/contenders. (Yes, the stats were coming at me fast, and they were supplied by the Chinese host, whose English is "odd".) Does Canada have that many pro athletes? Maybe with hockey, but the concentration skews the figures dramatically.

I'd like to see what Australia is doing. They have a population of 20 million (according to an Aus. commentator on Dialogue) and they're doing much better than Canada is doing, even in shooting. Now, they do pay athletes, like China. I've heard that prior to the Comm Games in Melbourne, some Aus. shooting team members received $35k to take the year off and train. (Hearsay, not confirmed, so take it as you like.) Regardless, they won medals. (Now, to be honest, they've also imported at least two Russian shooters, so that may be artificially inflating the success rate of their program.)

I've gotten off topic, so I'll end this post here and enter another one on coaching.