Chinese getting lesson in cheering for Olympics

< Prev | 1 | 2

Inside NBCSports.com

Scores, schedules
Fantasy sports
Trash Talk
Player news
Sports odds
Game matchups
Week in Pictures
JT The Brick

At a field hockey test event this summer between Argentina and Australia, hundreds of middle-age women were bused in to add atmosphere — the kind of instant numbers only China can muster. The women tried to imitate cheers in Spanish, but got it wrong.

“Ba mao si fen han de di le,” they chanted, which in Chinese could roughly mean: “Eighty-four cents, you’ve offered a price too low.” Nobody could figure out what this had to do with field hockey.

Golf isn’t an Olympic event, but players often complain that Chinese fans breach the game’s etiquette.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

“The good thing is we do have a lot of fans following us,” Chinese veteran golfer Zhang Lianwei said at a recent tournament. “The bad thing is they are so excited and yell at all times.”

American player Boo Weekley was more blunt: “They don’t quite understand the game, I don’t think.”

Chen Xiaohai, a 25-year-old accountant, acknowledged she wasn’t familiar with all Olympic sports. She thought snooker was in the Olympics and confessed to being stumped about the equestrian events.

Slide show
Week in Sports Pictures
Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more.
more photos
If there’s trouble, it could come in soccer — or any team event in which Japan participates. Scuffles with police and general chaos erupted in Beijing in 2004 after Japan defeated China to win Asia’s national soccer title. Japan’s women’s soccer team was peppered with insults three months ago at the women’s World Cup in China, and fans jeered Japan’s national anthem.

Shouting obscenities at opposing players is common in Chinese soccer, which has been plagued with match-fixing scandals and on-field fighting. Beijing’s top club team, Guo’an, plays at the Feng Tai stadium, which is draped with huge signs urging good behavior. Dozens of closed circuit cameras have been added in the last few years, and the police presence has increased several fold.

“Be civilized when you watch the match. Don’t get angry about the results,” one banner reads. Another banner in Chinese was recently removed. It read: “Welcome to Hell.”

Dozens of closed-circuit cameras will dot each Olympic venue, many looking down on the crowd from the ceiling. Organizers say they may dress police and soldiers in volunteer uniforms to help ensure order.

“We are not going to shout profanities in front of foreigners because the Olympics is a show for foreigners,” said Lui Wei, a 21-year-old spectator attending a recent Guo’an game.

“The government has told us it’s not polite,” Lui said. “The government wants to show a good image of the country.”

< Prev | 1 | 2