| Chinese Puzzle |
The host of the successful 2008 Olympic Games struggles to cope with the ongoing frustration of its men's national soccer team
By Xu Guoqi
Everyone has been talking about the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Few have realized that Chinese people, especially their men, have been obsessed with something else, namely soccer. No matter what China accomplished in the Olympic Games, the mood of hundreds of millions of Chinese soccer fans will be sad, frustrated and angry until their national men’s soccer team makes it to the World Cup and wins. For them, China remains the sick man of the world until its men’s national soccer team can prove itself as a winner in the world arena.
For the Chinese regime, success in the Olympics was important to demonstrate China’s superiority, but for hundreds of millions Chinese fans, a victory in the World Cup is the absolute yardstick for China’s greatness. Chinese soccer fans might have to wait for a long time to see their men compete in the World Cup and do well. The June 14, 2008, defeat this year at China’s own field in Tianjin by Iraq effectively destroyed China’s chances for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Every four years when China is fighting for participation in the World Cup, its fans are excited with the hope that the team might succeed, but every time they have been deeply disappointed; their team seems to have an amazing ability to turn any opportunity into impossibility. Once again, in 2008, Chinese hearts were broken. They will have to wait at least another eight years to find out whether they can see the Chinese men’s team compete against the best in the World Cup. In Chinese Internet chat rooms and blogs, frustration, anger and doubt about themselves and the nation was widespread. Here are some examples of the comments:
“When all Chinese were united to help victims of the Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese soccer team brought shame to the whole nation by getting defeated at the hands of Iraq.”
“The saddest thing in life [in China now] is to watch the stock market in the daytime and watch Chinese soccer at night.”
“If you love life, get away from the national soccer team; smoke is bad for health, but to watch the national soccer team puts your life in danger; the national soccer team might not be a disease, but when it starts to play, it can kill you.”
Besides the serious and heartbroken lines, the Chinese also tried to mix in some humor. Among many punch lines about the Chinese men’s soccer, one stands out as a favorite among the Chinese: “The Chinese never will be happy if their men’s soccer team cannot make it to the World Cup. But the people of the world will be sad if the Chinese men’s team reaches the World Cup” (because it is so bad).
The following joke reflects the sense of Chinese disillusionment about their men’s soccer: “Koreans asked God when they will win the World Cup. God answered: 50 years later. Koreans cried and said they cannot wait that long. The Japanese asked God when Japan will win the World Cup championship. God said, 100 years later. The Japanese cried and said they cannot wait that long. Then the Chinese asked God when the Chinese will win the World Cup. This time, God cried and said he was afraid that even he could not wait that long.”
The deep level of questioning and anger from millions of Chinese soccer fans has entered the national mindset and has moved beyond the Internet chat rooms and blogs. Even the closely controlled Chinese New Year celebration shown by China Central TV got involved in the soccer madness. In a program that attracted about 300 million viewers, the popular comedians Zhao Benshan and Song Dandan performed a piece titled “Olympic Torch Bearer.” It had the following: “Which sport drives fans crazy? Answer: soccer. Question: Which sport drives fans even more crazy? Answer: Chinese soccer!”
With so many examples, the reader clearly can see the paradox in today’s China: On the surface, we seem to get the impression that the Chinese feel good with their fast-growing economy and new wealth; they are excited with last year’s Olympics. In short, they are confident. But on a deeper level, many Chinese, especially men, are deeply frustrated, and have feelings of helplessness and abandonment because of soccer. Why did the failure to reach the 2010 World Cup affect the Chinese mood so much? The Chinese should have prepared for this result.
Despite the fact that no sport has been blessed with more national attention or more generous financial support than men’s soccer, despite the fact that China was affiliated with the FIFA as early as 1931, one year after the first World Cup, China has qualified for the World Cup only once – in 2002, when the two soccer powerhouses in Asia, Japan and South Korea, served as the co-hosts of the World Cup and allowed China to get in through the “back door,” not on its own merit. There was little chance for China to qualify if it had had to compete against South Korea and Japan. With this God-sent opportunity to prove itself, the Chinese team didn’t score even once. Team China was eliminated in the first round.
Before and after its only appearance in the 2002 World Cup, Chinese men’s soccer continually has been defeated by small countries such as Iraq and Singapore. No wonder one Chinese wrote in his blog that “the national men’s soccer team has never done anything to win glory for the nation, but it has seized every moment to shame our country.”
The chain of defeats began when China started to renew itself in the late 1970s. In 1979, China’s soccer defeat happened in strange circumstances at the hands of North Korea, as China took part in the qualifying competitions for the 1980 Olympic Games. China, Japan and the two Koreas in the East Asian region were fighting for two spots to play in the next round against the two winners of Western Asia. North Korea and China plotted to help each other win by secretly reaching an agreement that they would play to a 3-3 draw when they played each other. The idea of the 3-3 draw came from the North Koreans and the Chinese accepted immediately – China had not completely awakened from the dream of “friendship first” between these two socialist countries that were supposed to be as close as teeth and lips.
When the score reached 3-3, the Chinese players understandably just took it easy. However, North Koreans suddenly scored again, making the tally 4-3. When the Chinese tried to come back, the North Koreans played hard and refused to let China score another goal. The Chinese were stuck with a shocking defeat.
Since the 1979 loss to North Korea, China’s soccer team’s failure has become a pattern, no matter how Chinese fans have cheered for them and linked soccer to their national honor and manhood. Chinese soccer fans have a lot of questions. Why has the Chinese men’s soccer kept disappointing them by losing on the world stage when other sports in China have done well? How can a nation with a population of 1.3 billion not produce a good 11-member soccer team that can compete?
It may be more troubling to the Chinese when they realize that in 2006 the entire population of the 32 nations that entered in the World Cup was about 1.5 billion, while that of China was 1.34 billion. Why has China, which boasted that it invented soccer several thousand years ago and its ancestors played the ball quite well, suddenly lost its magic touch with the beautiful game and the Chinese, for the last several decades, have not been able to prove their capacity and manhood by standing up against most teams in the world? After all, the father of the Han Dynasty’s founding emperor had such a good time playing ancient soccer with his old friends in his hometown that he complained to his emperor son the life in the capital was no fun. A guy in the Song Dynasty, according to a widespread story, played soccer so well that he was eventually appointed as a prime minister.
Even the Chinese in the early 20th century were competitive at soccer when the nation was facing national crises. Japan might have been able to bully China militarily in 1930s, but its soccer team was routinely defeated by China.
One Chinese soccer player, Li Huitang, was called “the soccer king of Asia” because of his brilliant shooting skills. During that time, soccer in some parts of China even reached the national treasure level because of Li Huitang. There was a saying then in Shanghai that “to watch Beijing Opera, you have to watch Mei Lanfang, to watch soccer, you must watch Li Huitang.” If the Chinese could win and prove their manhood then, why can the Chinese not do it now? To make the situation worse for the Chinese men, the Chinese women, the so-called “Iron Roses,” have done extremely well in the 1990s and through today, despite the fact that they did not receive decent financial or fan support.
The Chinese government, which in many ways has an amazing capacity to get things done, seems at the end of its wits when it comes to the men’s soccer team. To be fair, the government has certainly tried. Marshal He Long, who was the first head of the PRC’s sports commission as well as vice premier, made it clear to everyone that he would not close his eyes when he died if the three big ball sports (volleyball, basketball, and soccer) in China could not compete against the world. Well, the Chinese volleyball and basketball teams have done well, but the terrible situation in men’s soccer has not improved at all and may have gotten worse, even though Marshal He died nearly four decades ago. I wonder whether he still keeps his eyes open in heaven to watch the soccer team with horror.
Chinese soccer was even blessed with a super fan, the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who was obsessed with soccer. His final emergence to power from his third purge became known when he showed up at a soccer game in 1977, just the same way that Mao announced the coming of the biggest political storm, the Cultural Revolution, by swimming the Yangtze River. The powerful and creative Deng might have been able to work economic miracles for the nation, but he failed miserably in saving men’s soccer. Deng famously declared that to improve the men’s soccer competition level, China must start to train the best and brightest of the soccer youth. Alas, Deng died in 1997 and it seems that the Chinese soccer wonder kids either have never emerged or still have not grown up.
Who or what is to blame for such a mess with the Chinese men’s soccer? Some argue that the problem exists with the political control of soccer. Some link the poor performance of the men’s soccer to widespread corruption such as “black whistling” or refereeing. Others think game gambling and lazy players or bad coaching are the problems. Some even argue the existence of professional soccer leagues in China since 1994 is the problem. Chinese culture, which is thought to discourage individualism and creativity, also is blamed by some fans. For this group, to have a strong soccer team, China first needs free willed and individual-minded citizens. Teamwork and following orders, trademarks of the Chinese social system, may not be sufficient to develop great teams. Others maintain that although China has a population of 1.3 billion, it has very few youth players that play soccer regularly.
The millions of Chinese fans might disagree with each other about the root of the problems, but they universally agree that the Chinese sports commission, especially its soccer federation, is to blame for the men’s soccer teams’ failure. To revive the Chinese soccer, China needs to get rid of its national sports commission. Some suggest that it was the Chinese soccer federation and sports administration that created a non-harmonious society. Perhaps Chinese obsession with sports will become an impetus, however indirect, to political reforms in the future. If that is the case, soccer may play a more important role as an agent for social and political change.
One might ask that since the Chinese fans’ hearts frequently have been broken by their men’s soccer team, why have they not just given up and moved on to something different? Indeed, many fans have tried to quit, but when the game starts, they become hooked again.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the January-February 2009 issue of Soccer Journal.
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