This summer, China was very eager to tell the world how modern and advanced it was. They welcomed the world the the 2008 Summer Olympics, spent billions and billions of dollars, and went to extreme lengths to make sure everybody stayed on-message. And China did win more gold medals than any other nation this summer. However, having a well-funded sports system is not the same thing as being a member of the moder, capitalist sports world. A news story today finally convinced me that China is ready.
Wang Hao, a two-time Olympic silver medalist in Table Tennis, was arrested thursday in Shanghai and has been ordered to get counseling. Finally, a Chinese Pacman Jones! Apparently Mr. Wang emerged, drunk, from a karaoke club and decided to urinate on the outside of the building. A security guard attempted to stop him from doing so, and the two came to blows. My favorite part is what Wang reportedly yelled while trying to punch the guard: "I am the famous Wang Hao! I am the World Champion! Who cares if I beat you?" Awesome.
Table Tennis (or "Ping Pong", as we uncultured Americans like to call it), has long been one of the most popular sports in China. Wang is a major star in the country's professional ping pong league. The coach of his club, Bayi, said that he may face additional punishment from the team, though he did not elaborate.
As China becomes more of a world economic leader, and continues to shift to a more modern, capitalist society, incidents like this will become more and more common. Chinese culture is usually described as "collectivist" rather than "individualist"... it has never been a celebrity culture. But that may be changing. This summer, the world got to see just how big athletes like basketball player Yao Ming, runner Liu Xiang, and badminton star Lin Dan are in their homeland. And it turns out that, if you have enough celebrities, some of them will have trouble dealing with fame, collectivism or no.
Another aspect of this that interests me is the punishment. He has to get counseling? Time was Wang would have simply disappeared from the scene after bringing "shame" to his country in this way, but now we don't even know if he'll miss any matches for his pro team. China likes to think of itself, increasingly, as a meritocracy, a country where, if you work hard enough, you can get ahead. This is new, but it's also different from the "American Dream" we like to talk about here. Yes, Wang is being treated differently because he is a celebrity. In China, that's not really something that's questioned. If he's famous, it's because he's better. There's none of this "all men are created equal" business. If you're as good as them, why aren't you where they are, is the question that's asked.
As we saw this summer, China's going through a period of intense change, and incidents like this are a small part of that. Anyway, I think that's about enough analysis for a "guy-pees-on-wall" story.
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