Chinese Cheaters?
Posted on August 13th, 2008 in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
They faked the fireworks and the singing child at the opening ceremony.
Now they’ve won the gymnastics gold with one competitor so young she’s missing a tooth. Are the Chinese cheating?
Leading up to the Olympics, some official Chinese sports registration lists in China suggested that half of the Chinese women’s team did not meet the age requirement of turning 16 in 2008.
…He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan may be as young as 14, according to some on-line lists, which have now been blocked or have disappeared completely….
10 Responses
8/13/2008 10:35 am
It’s not every day you get to read the New York Times engaging in some armchair eugenics:
“Because China and the United States competed on the same events each rotation, it was easier to notice differences in their body types. The Chinese gymnasts lack curves, have an average height of 4 feet 9 inches and weigh an average of 77 pounds. Deng is the smallest, at 4-6 and 68 pounds. The women on the United States team, generally more muscular and shapely than the Chinese, are an average of 3 ½ inches taller and 30 pounds heavier.”
Hey guys, just say it: the American chicks are hot, the Chinese are not!
8/13/2008 10:53 am
That’s funny, I thought “He kexin” was a line from an episode of _The Wire_.
8/13/2008 3:08 pm
Let’s give the NYT a little credit here — they actually broke this story almost two weeks ago (see my blog posting for a link back to the article). A Google search of the girls’ names turned up some old rosters showing later birthdates than the ones on their current passports. Those rosters had been taken down from the Chinese web sites, but Google’s cached copies, held in Mountain View or wherever Google keeps its enormous disk arrays, were still visible. The Chinese apparently expect us to believe that those old records were wrong. — I wonder if this story has legs. It feels really nasty to me, not just because of the high stakes and the fact they have now won the gold, but because the preference for younger girls in gymnastics is not just biomechanical — it’s emotional. They are willing to do more dangerous maneuvers because they have less fear.
8/13/2008 3:08 pm
Sorry, that was me.
8/14/2008 9:59 am
Professor Lewis does raise a good point about giving the NYT credit. Richard, why didn’t you note that they were the first to report this story, back on July 27?
I do wonder about younger gymnasts having less fear, though. Has anyone ever studied that to see if it’s actually true, or is it just conventional wisdom? It’s inarguable that pre-pubescent girls, on average, have a higher muscle-to-weight ratio than girls going through (or who have gone through) puberty, but the “less fear” thing sounds like something that sports commentators started saying based on anecdotal evidence.
8/15/2008 3:09 pm
I have been living and working in china for 6 years now as a GM of a western company with over 1,500 employees. I guess you could say I’ve had a lot of close exposure to the realities of these “organisms”. It is scarey to see how niave the World is about china. The lines they are willing to cross for the most marginal benefit extend beyond one’s wildest imagination. Just when you think you have seen the most sub-human act you will ever witness in your life, you see something more scathing literally the next day. They have taught me the true meaning of the word subhuman.
They steal from their companies and families, lie to each other changing their stories in mid sentance, laugh at others pain (for example, it is common for them to laugh when the world trade center is brought up) and even steal groceries from a stricken bicyclist laying dying on the pavement. Of course the chinese (I refuse to even capitalize the word anymore) are lying. But it does no good to confront them, you will NEVER GET THE TRUTH.
People talk about “face” in china. But it does not fit the Western definition. In china, it is perfectly okay to lie . . . to your friends, to you work colleagues, to your lover, to your family. It is even okay if everybody knows you’re lying. It is at this point when you loose face in the West. Picture sitting at a dinner table or Board Meeting, having just weaved a web of lies, and then realizing you just contradicted yourself and revealed your lie . . . now you have lost face. But in china, no problem, you still have face, even if everybody knows it is a lie and you know they know. It’s when you must admit the truth that you loose face in china. Think about the implications of this. There is no incentive to tell the truth in the chinese culture, rather only a disincentive . . . the chinese definition of “face” . . . so important to them . . . and totally incongruent with honor, integrity, and honesty. The two cannot coexist, and in china they don’t. If you don’t believe me, follow the behavior of the true experts . . . the chinese themselves. For the only one that trusts the chinese less than foriegners are the chinese themselve . . . they know better. The World is not ready for china, even your imagination cannot fathom the depths.
The only good news is, if there is a Hell, no matter how bad you are, you’re okay if you’re not chinese. Nobody is perfect, so even God must grade on a curve. With 1.3 billion chinese bringing up the absolute rock bottom, Hell is at capacity.
Too harsh? Talk to someone that has really lived and worked with the chinese in china.
8/15/2008 3:32 pm
Totally agree with your comments “Wake Up”. I’ve been living in China for 4 years. You made only one mistake in your comments. You tried to explain it to those who have not experienced it. Words cannot do justice to how pathetic they really are. Good Luck, and remember the golden rule among us expats, “Don’t EVER believe ANYTHING ANY Chinese person tells you EVER!”
P.S. 1,500? You’re in trouble! The joke at our company is we would hire monkeys to do the work. They are smarter and more trustworthy, unfortunately it costs more to feed monkeys bananas than to pay the Chinese . . . oh well, you get what you pay for. I’ll just say this, I will definately pay a little more to avoid buying “made in China” in the future.
8/22/2008 4:00 am
Wow, I’ve heard scathing reviews before……
Well, since I’ve never lived in China and have only associated with Chinese Americans, I can’t make a reasoned judgement such as yours. It’s generally my opnion that every race and nationality has all types; intelligent and stupid, honorable and thieving, those with integrity and those without, ambitious and lazy, athletic and disgustingly obese, beautiful and ugly, etc. Normally I don’t subscribe to generalizations, but your observations intrigue me since you describe it as a shared set of values throughout their country. Maybe there’s something to what you say. Can’t say for sure. What I can say for sure ist that I hope the Olympic Committee’s investigation is thorough and if the Chinese cheated I’d like to see them just as thoroughly embarrased. Although to hear you describe it, that’s not possible. Well, then I hope they’re at least unhappy for having been caught.
8/22/2008 6:44 pm
Well, it looks like they did. That girl looks rediculously young. I know that asians just look younger, but come on man.
If I had to bet, I would definitely bet that they did cheat. They are so driven to dominate the Olympics, and have taken such pride in getting the most gold medals. Knowing this, I do not find it hard to believe that they would take steps, such as using 14 year old gymnasts, to reach this goal.
If they did cheat then China sucks. That would totally tarnish all the efforts and results of all the clean and legal athletes that did well for China.
8/24/2008 2:41 pm
Has anyone else noticed that china only seems to win medals in sports that entail being judged? not like soccer or basketball or track and field or swimming or almost any sport where the scores are not subjective? sports that are not succeptable to judges being bribed? Kinda makes you wonder! I cant beleive China was ever even awarded the hosting of the olympics given their human rights record, and the terrible treatment continued during the olympics with two chinese old ladies being threatened with one year in a labor camp for asking for a permit to protest!