August 14, 2008 1:41 PM
Suddenly Serbian Spectators
I am going to say something right now that will trivialize my entire argument, but do stay with me on this:Chinese fans are like Ron Burgundy.
By which I mean: they will say or do anything that is put in front of them.
In the States, sure, JumboTrons can get the crowd going. Put a "Scream if you love Nuggets basketball" graphic up, and the Pepsi Center crowd might eat it up. But not like here. When the "Let's Do the Mexican Wave" graphic appeared on the Worker's Stadium screen on Wednesday, a huge roar swept over the crowd.
Volunteers sprang into action. At one designated location, the volunteers instructed fans to stand up and start the wave. And they did, en masse.
From the fans' reaction, you'd have thought that Yao Ming was flying over the Worker's Stadium, dropping 100 yuan bills into the crowd. The only wave I've ever seen that came close was at Michigan Stadium, but even 100,000 screaming maize and blue fans couldn't touch this wave.
The wave circled the stadium until the graphic went off the JumboTron. Within seconds, the wave stopped.
It gets weirder. The Chinese also have these cheer teams that roam the stadiums with microphones. One would enter into a section and raise his or her hands into the air. Then he or she screamed out in Chinese, "Okay fans, let's do the Olympic cheer!"
All at once, everyone in the section put down what they had in their hands. The woman sitting next to me nearly dropped her three-year-old on a half dozen occasions. Beers, sodas, whatever: they were forgotten, and the entire section had their hands in the air before the cheer leader was finished talking.
Then the cheer began, and it was as creepy as anything I've ever seen. Two claps, followed by two thumbs up. Repeated up to five times. By thousands of people. Then the cheer leader thanked the crowd, and everyone went searching for that beer they'd dropped.But that's not even the strangest thing I saw. During the game, the Chinese had no home team to root for. So most of the time, they were just cheering "Go China Go!" (which made no sense during a U.S.-Nigeria or Argentina-Serbia game). They were also wearing all red and a few "I Love China" stickers or face paint, which was odd for neutral spectators.
In terms of soccer knowledge, I'd say that the fans would best be compared to a five-year-old at Harlem Globetrotters game. Fast play or a creative move drew big cheers. Any stoppage of play was booed loudly. Mostly, the fans were just yelling for that bucket of confetti (or Leo Messi).
A few weeks ago, one writer for the Chinese version of Variety told me that when the censors here chop up a movie or a TV show, they're looking to define the edited version in simple good vs. evil terms. That seems to have seeped into the Chinese fan experience as well. If the Chinese national team -- the ultimate "good" during these Olympics -- isn't playing, then the crowd decides what other "good" things they can root for.
Example: when Michael Orozco of the U.S. was awarded an early red card, the crowd booed thoroughly. As he walked off the field, the boos got louder. The boos had nothing to do with anti-American sentiment; the crowd just genuinely believed that Orozco was a bad guy. They also booed the Argentinean coach each time he subbed in a player who wasn't Messi. Hadn't he noticed the full stadium chants of "Messi! Messi!"? (Which, I should add, was pronounced incorrectly by all in the stadium. Some called him "Merci." Others called him "Meshy." The whole was a strange French polyester blend.)
During the Argentina-Serbia game, Argentina was the home favorite for the entirety of the first half. Every dribble and every shot drew applause and oohs and ahhs. The crowd went completely nuts when Messi was shown on the JumboTron. When Argentina scored, the crowd was on its feet for two full minutes afterwards.
Then, in the 70th minute, the least explainable thing I've seen here in China occurred: everyone decided that they hated Argentina. Up until that point, I hadn't heard a single cheer for Serbia. But at minute 70, with Argentina up 1-0, everyone decided that they were Serbian fans.
I spent the next five minutes trying to figure out if everyone in the stadium had seen some cue to change their rooting affiliation. Was a mass text message sent out? Were the volunteers holding up "Cheer for a close game!" signs? Had Mao sent some sort of message from the grave?
A "Go Serbia Go!" chant started immediately. Then another one. Even the China fans with the Argentinean flag painted on their cheeks or those wearing Messi jerseys -- and there were probably at least three or four thousand of these types around the stadium -- started cheering for Serbia.
And yes, it gets weirder: the fans started booing vigorously whenever Argentina touched the ball. When the Serbians regained possession, the crowd went nuts.
To fully explain, check out this video I took during the late stages of the game. Two of the scenes are from the regular run of play; the third is from an Argentinean penalty kick (and the fans booed when the PK was called, too):
The only real explanation I can think of for the entire scene is this: the Chinese do everything as a unit. Dissension isn't an option. That's communism for you.
So when it comes down to rooting for a team, everyone roots for the same one. In the second half, for some reason -- maybe it was the desire to see a tie or a protest against Messi being left on the bench -- everyone decided to switch their affiliation. One group of fans started cheering for Serbia, so everyone started cheering for Serbia.
And if real individualism existed in this country, then why didn't any of those Chinese "Argentinean fans" stand up and say, "Hey, screw you guys! Go Argentina!"? They didn't because they're hard-wired not to. They're not just supposed to jump on the bandwagon; they're obligated to.
So for the last 20 minutes of the game, China's workers stadium became Little Belgrade.
A few lone Argentina fans -- by which I mean the fans who were actually from Argentina -- did cheer when their team scored their second goal. Everyone else booed them out of the stadium.
August 14, 2008
3:12 PM
Mallinson writes:
This is the answer I've been looking for. I need a bunch of Chinese to come to an Avalanche game so I can finally implement my cheer, aptly named "The Avalanche." It's like the wave, but starts at the top row of the Pepsi Center and cascades down. It is my dream to see this happen (as sad as that may be), but I don't know how to go about making it happen. I'm not sure we'll be going communist any time soon. Damn.