pressure can make diamonds … how about gold?

From our guest blogger, Niniane:

China is fixated on getting gold medals in the Olympics.

The culture has always emphasized perfection. If it’s not gold, it’s worthless. If you’re not #1, then you must be crap. My cousin’s teacher once called in his parents to discuss his inadequate performance on an exam. After a long lecture, my relatives asked with fear, “What exactly did he get on the test?” The teacher’s answer: 96 out of 100.

I made this visual demonstration of how it pertains to the Olympics. This is how you or I would respond to a silver medal:

Now let’s look at it from the eyes of China.

The pressure is negatively affecting some of the athletes:

To learn how their athletes would handle the pressure of competing at home in the Olympics, Chinese sports officials conducted an experiment earlier this year: They invited athletes’ parents to watch a gymnastics meet.

Most of the gymnasts, who have lived at their training center since they were young children, had never competed in front of their loved ones. Some could not cope.

‘During the competition, some athletes didn’t feel very good and even fell down from the balance beam.’

This morning, my cab driver and I had a discussion about this. In particular, we talked about Liu Xiang, the Chinese hurdler who won gold in Athens 2004, and who is representing China in hurdles this time too.

Liu Xiang is on billboards everywhere in Beijing, and his name is often associated with phrases like “the hopes of a nation ride on his shoulders”. Or “1.4 billion people are rooting for him to win gold”.

In a poll of Chinese citizens, staging a successful Olympics ranked fourth; watching Liu Xiang win gold ranked first (link).

Maybe Liu Xiang will be able to match the sky-high expectations, the way that J.K. Rowling did for the seventh book of Harry Potter. But I can’t imagine the terror of those 12.86 seconds, after these months of buildup.

My dad told me once that computer programmers are not suited for sports competitions or artistic performances. “Those require precision on the day of the performance,” he said. “You can’t go in with the mindset of ‘A mistake is fine. I’ll just recompile. I’ll get it right on the third try.'”

The cab driver this morning was even-keeled about the pressure on the athletes. “If I were the media,” he said, “I would remind people that Liu Xiang has serious competition. If he doesn’t win gold, it’s not unusual. And whether he wins gold, silver, bronze, or nothing, he’s put China on the map for track and field, and we should support him.”

I like the sentiment quite a lot, but I don’t think it would work as well for marketing.

I can’t imagine a big China Mobile ad that says, “The hopes of a nation lie with him … whether he wins gold, silver, bronze, or nothing.”

John:

My thoughts on being “Under Pressure”

Have you ever listened to the song, “Under Pressure” by Queen and sometime remind you of when you’ve been under pressure? I’m sure we’ve all been under pressure sometimes – wondering how we are ever going to get through something. Well, I don’t think any of us have felt the pressure of what it is like to be an Olympian… let alone a Chinese Olympian about to compete at home for 1.3 billion countrymen!

Well, in Niniane’s Blog, a blog a few of us on 8Asians.com read regularly, Niniane is in Beijing for the Olympics and blogs about the pressure that Chinese athletes in her post, “pressure can make diamonds … how about gold?” about the typical Chinese thinking around coming in second is like:

” China is fixated on getting gold medals in the Olympics. The culture has always emphasized perfection. If it’s not gold, it’s worthless. If you’re not #1, then you must be crap. My cousin’s teacher once called in his parents to discuss his inadequate performance on an exam. After a long lecture, my relatives fearfully asked, “What exactly did he get on the test?” The teacher’s answer: 98 out of 100.”

Niniane goes on to write about the pressure that 2004 Athens Olympic Gold winning Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang must be feeling to win the gold this year! Liu Xiang was on the cover of Newsweek last week, as I had posted earlier this week on my thoughts as a Taiwanese-American on the Olympics. In China, Liu Xiang is more famous than NBA basketball player Yao Ming (and if you’ve ever seen the documentary “Year of the Yao” – he was under a LOT of pressure – in both the U.S. and in China).

Liu Xiang is not the only one that’s expecting to win gold, but certainly the highest profile Chinese athlete expected to win. The New York Times does an excellent job of capturing the pressure on all of the Chinese athletes in “Host’s Advantage? Tell That to the Athletes” – quoting a Chinese Olympian, ““In China, it’s only important to win the gold in the Olympics. If you win second, or finish last, it’s the same.””

This “win-the-gold-or-you’re-a-failure” mentality is not exactly healthy for Olympians or day-to-day living. Surprisingly, in conversation with a Beijing taxi driver, Niniane finds a sympathetic voice if Liu Xiang doesn’t win a gold medal or any medal at all. Hopefully Liu Xiang’s fellow countrymen will feel the same if that is the case.

“Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure – that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming let me out
Pray tomorrow – gets me higher
Pressure on people – people on streets”

I hoping for Liu Xiang’s sake that he wins the gold.