Gold Diggers: Why Only One Medal Matters to the Chinese

When I first arrived in Beijing, the only gold-digger stories I'd heard of were about Chinese girls who'd prick condoms with safety pins before they'd bed expats. Now, all that reaches my ears is talk of jin pai (gold medals). At events, Chinese fans only explode into applause when gold-medal winners -- and Chinese ones at that -- take the podium, barely mustering a clap for yin pai (silver medal) athletes and practically ignoring tong pai (bronze medal) winners. Gold, it seems, is all that matters to the Chinese.

"But WE still have more total medals," a Chinese-American woman said, claiming the latter of her labels, to her Chinese friend last night at the Bird's Nest. The friend didn't counter.

But as exciting (read: lame) as the debate on whether more gold medals or more total medals translates into world domination is, maybe the problem that people should be worrying about is: At the end of this Olympic insanity, how serious will China take its gold-medal tally? Will the new powerhouse believe that its golden supremacy means it has a pass on human rights issues and a get-out-of-Tibet-criticism-free card?

"The Chinese believe that if we have the most gold medals, it proves that the government is good and its policies are right," says Cecilia Wu, 24, who hails from the Yunnan province. "It also shows that China is getting better and stronger as a country." But a country that is so strong that it doesn't have to heed recommendations of countries that won fewer medals? Will Hu Jintao bring up China's ping-ponging power during visits with world leaders, and the future US president chuckle and then ask Hu to remember the basketball defeat? More ridiculous things have happened in politics, unfortunately.

However, the gold-medal obsession and the drive to win gold and only gold isn't surprising. When I scored 99 on a calculus test during my junior year of high school, my Chinese-émigré mother scolded me for not studying. Striving for perfection is embedded in the culture: This gold-medal excellence, at face value, shouldn't be feared or seen as robotic or unsportsmanlike. But at a deeper level, taking the most golds may only confirm to the Chinese people that their leaders have been doing right all along. And having 1.3 billion backing a government accused of censorship and flailing on human rights -- now that may be something to be afraid of.

Comments

[chinationreport]

If only total medal counts matter for the USA, why is USA not happy with a silver and actually many silvers in gymnastics?? That particular gold does seem to matter! I don't get the logic.

Of course I am going to hear that it is not because of the medal, it is justice. Bla bla... Yeah, right. Give me the justice. Don't tell me there is more justice for 4000 soldiers to die in Iraq than the age of two Chinese athletes -assume they really cheated that won a gold medal...
http://www.chinationreport.com/ for daily balanced China news

[xtiangodloki]

If most Chinese in China believe in their own government rather than the ever instigating western human right activists, why can't the west respect that? I for one cannot wait for democracy in China. On issues like Tibet most Chinese will certainly vote against Tibet Independence.

On the discussion about gold medal vs total medal count, the only countries which argue for total medal count as opposed to gold medal count are US and Russia. There is nothing wrong with preferring perfection especially at the highest level of competition. Even in the US when it comes to sports which people care about, like NBA or NFL, the winning team gets the bragging rights. As much as I'd like to see it, Boston did not have a parade for Patriots because the football team was the second best after losing to Giants. Did anyone in LA celebrate Laker's second place finish in NBA season after it lost to Celtics?

I am curious why is it then when it comes to the Olympics, the average Americans' attitude on winning and losing had changed.

[Pompeii]

Also, I don't buy the idea that American success in team sports says anything about us other than we provide the most money to people who play these sports competitively. USA has competitive leagues with big money for basketball, baseball, volleyball, even water polo and softball, so of course we tend to have more medals from these sports. (And even then, we haven't done *that* great in Beijing-- losses in e.g. softball and water polo.)

Finally, I'm getting tired of the "Chinese are cheaters" talk, since in the USA, we have our own proud history of, um, Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, an entire relay team from 2000, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco... and what about those souped-up swimming suits the US swimmers are wearing? Is that not a form of cheating as well? (And who knows how many of the swimmers have been doping up themselves, as the Jessica Hardy case shows.)

There are many aspects of Chinese behavior I don't like in these Olympics, but the USA is really the pot calling the kettle black if we start pointing fingers at them. Even if you leave out the women's gymnastics cases, the Chinese have still demolished the USA in the total gold medal count-- it's not even close, 47 gold medals to 31! The Chinese have beaten us fair and square, and whining and moaning about it won't get us anywhere. Best to accept it, congratulate the Chinese and work harder for the next Olympics.

[Pompeii]

First of all, it's not just the Chinese who focus on the gold medals-- the official IOC rankings are based on gold medals, not total medals, and this is the international standard (for obvious reasons-- in any sport, you rank teams and athletes by the number of wins, not the # of first-place, fifth-place, whatever finishes).
All media outside the USA therefore report this, here's a sample list that's been going around:

http://os2008.telesport.nl/medaillespiegel.php
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/app/sport/ticker/olympia/medaillenspiegel/?jahr=2008
http://www.sports.fr/jo-2008/medailles.html
http://oglobo.globo.com/esportes/olimpiadas2008/
http://palvelu.kaleva.fi/peking//index.cfm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/medals_table/default.stm
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/beijing_olympics/fullmedaltally/0,27717,,00.html
http://www.stern.de/olympia2008/medaillenspiegel/:Olympia-2008-Medaillenspiegel/632165.html
http://www.olimpicosuniversal.com.mx/html/home.php
http://www.mno.hu/portal/577237
http://olympics.navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/medalshow/3164261.cms
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/event/index.cfm?c_id=502
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/olympic/2008beijing/ranking/index.html
http://www.corriere.it/Speciali/Sport/2008/olimpiadi_pechino_2008/statistiche.shtml?p=/main/medal_table.htm
http://www.games08.ru/

So it's the gold medals that determine the rankings, not the total medals. Obviously, 99 gold medals beats out 100 bronze medals!

[LitDr2B]

To be fair to the Chinese, they are not the only ones who think gold is the only medal that matters.

I was disgusted by NBC commentators when Sanya Richards (USA) won a bronze medal in the womens 400. The commentator remarked that she had such promise, but was now leaving Beijing "with little to show for it."

Um. A bronze medal is hardly "little to show for it."

I think the US does its fair share of gold-digging.

[mlaiuppa]

All it means is that hosting the Olympic Games hasn't managed to teach the Chinese the real meaning of the Olympic Games. They still don't get it.

[DAE]

Neither do we.

[Amalek]

The Chinese have a bit of a superiority complex, not unlike Americans.

As an American expat in China, my Chinese comrades view my hairy chest and arms as signs that I have not fully evolved.

[poomplet]

This is why it's so sweet that the Chinese are going to finally get busted for their gymnastics cheating.

[mlaiuppa]

Says who? Who's going to bust them? The Olympics committee has given them a pass saying that passports are all that matters. The Chinese government provided the passports so they're legitimate, even if they are a complete fabrication. The little children were coached to lie about their ages. It's a done deal. They got away with it. The fact that everyone knows they're cheats doesn't matter to them as long as they get to keep their precious gold medals.

[Lon]

If you switched our medal totals for the Chinese, then Americans would only care about Gold too.

I read comparatively little olympic coverage, only what i see while looking through the real sports coverage, and I have still seen plenty that treats silver medals as failures. And the US still takes pride in its medal counts. (Although something that maybe we should take pride in is the degree to which we seem to be good at team sports to a degree that seems even to be disproportionate to our size. Forget individualism, maybe it says something about us that we work well together).