Out of the 4 gold medals that China has won in the Vancouver Winter Olympics so far, only half of a gold was won by a male athlete, Zhao Hongbo in pairs figure skating. Are the men having a bad run at these games? Actually, it has been like this for as long as many Chinese can remember. There is even a term which describes the phenomenon, ‘阴盛阳衰’(yin1sheng4yang2shuai1), which means rise of the women, decline of the men. (Note that the phrase uses the Yin/Yang concept. Yin refers to the female, Yang male.)
But why? A Chinese curling commentator had this to say when he tried to explain why the Chinese women’s team is in the semifinal, won the 2009 World Championship while the men struggled to qualify for the Olympics. The same goes for a lot of other sports, e.g. speed skating, soccer, tennis, swimming, etc. His explanation is that when China started to train for curling 5 years ago, men’s game was a lot more developed in its complexity than the women’s game. So it was harder for the Chinese men to match their competitors than for the women. That created a vicious cycle where the men always did poorly, resulting in scant chances to compete in world-class events whereas the women kept building on their success to refine their game. I don’t know how strong the argument is. After all, in their own gender group, I am sure it wasn’t easy for the women to catch up with the competitors.
Some think the imbalance is partly caused by physique. The difference between the build of a Chinese man and a Western man is generally greater than that between women. That’s why Chinese men are weaker than women in sports that rely more on physique, speed and stamina. I guess some of it is true. Simply by looking at the people in the ChinesePod office, the Chinese girls are not so different from the Western girls whereas Chinese men are at least 2 sizes smaller than Western men.
So it seems Chinese male athletes are disadvantaged, excluding things like table tennis and badminton. But once in a blue moon we are blessed with a guy like Yao Ming to tip the balance back.
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February 26, 2010 5:23 am
I’ve been wondering about the reason for ‘阴盛阳衰’ for a long time, too. The physique explanation cannot be true. If it’s because of the differences in physique, then how come Korean and Japanese male athletes can perform at a comparable level of the westerners?
It must be other reasons, like diet, nutrition, and most likely, motivation.
February 26, 2010 8:48 am
I myself do not admire much the kind of body demanded of olympic players. Over muscular, steroid types (even for women). What about a future real world Olympics with Taijiquan, with wushu and maybe the japanese kyudo.
I’m more worried about the model sportmen of today. No spiritual cultivation, bodies for “war” competition. I really would like to see less Herculian types and more real people playing sports (not just watching).
That’s it!
cheers
February 27, 2010 8:06 am
And Wang Meng is just awesome.
I know there are a lot of physical aspects to sports but, as an athlete myself, I believe that a lot of what makes a great athlete is what is between the ears. In my interactions with mainland Chinese, the women are far more stronger than men when it comes to mental fortitude. I believe the hidden power of the Chinese women come from what they are capable of mentally. But this is just my theory.
February 28, 2010 11:54 pm
Giving up smoking, MSG, and Bai Jiu will help also…
March 4, 2010 4:06 pm
Just the day after I wrote this post, the Chinese women’s speed skating team took all the gold medals at the Winter Olympics. They made the point that they couldn’t have done it without the men training with them to bring up their speed. The men’s team came in 4th in the 5000M relay. They were the second during 98% of the race, but the final skater skidded right before the finishing line. It was a brilliant performance nonetheless and impressed China. Maybe what they need is more encouragement and attention.
March 6, 2010 8:04 pm
Have the men actually got worse, or have they simply failed to improve their position while the women have got better?
I see plenty of big guys in Shanghai (especially those under 35-ish) and, statistically, China should have plenty of physically large men. I don’t think this argument holds up.
I think it’s more likely that, because of pressure on getting an education, earning & career progress, Chinese men don’t put the same amount time into sport at a young age that men in other countries do.
March 12, 2010 9:54 pm
Success in international competitions is a combination of innate talent (i.e. Ethiopians and marathon running) and cultural emphasis. For example, during the Soviet era, winning medals at the Olympics was considered a top priority so they put a ton of money and special considerations for promising young athletes. Many countries followed the same pattern including China. The incredible success of China in the summer Olympics is a testament to the fact that if you have enough innate talent (over 1.3 billion people will guarantee that in general) and enough cultural emphasis you can dominate. About half of the Chinese medals won in the summer Olympics went to men. China had 9 in weightlifting, 4 in judo and 4 in boxing (strength/fighting sports). Since its obvious that Chinese men did very well in the summer Olympics, the more appropriate question is why i the summer Olympics and not the winter Olympics – besides home field advantage I would guess that the government didn’t put as much time, money, effort into the winter Olympics yet. All things being said, I think all countries waste too much time and money on sports while their people lack food, shelter, education, health care…but that’s for a different day
April 8, 2010 3:31 am
Simple answer is men’s sport are more competitive. How many little boys dream about being a soccer/hockey/basketball/baseball stars vs how many little girls actually think they can make it in the WNBA.
Plug size I don’t think comes into it at all considering how the Chinese olympic program is run. Kids are picked and vetted already based on what body type is optimal for a specific sport. China is big enough, I think that we can find the bigger people if we need it (just go north).
June 11, 2010 2:56 pm
Regarding the curling, I think I read that the women’s team actually spent very significant portions of their time in Canada while the men’s team did not. This would certainly go some way in explaining the differences in performance (for curling at least).