Scribbles

Didn’t expect to get caught up into the hype, but found myself inevitable drawn into it. Can I rave enough about the opening ceremony? The show they put on Friday night blew away all expectations. After watching it, I felt so happy for the hosts and people who obviously worked so hard to make it happen. While there were so many highlights, what stood out the most was in so many of the performances in the artistic portion, how thousands of people worked together, in harmony and unison, to perform, dance, tai-chi, etc. It captured perfectly the how China can use its magnitude, its people power in tandem with its cultural sense of welcoming to connect with the rest of the world. And doing so in such modest beauty and elegance will undoubtedly win people over.

Spending a majority of my life in the US and watching the Olympics over the past years, I find myself rooting for many of the US athletes. The inspirational stories in the past and of today are simply hard to ignore. At the same time, I root hard for China, for the athletes who trained so hard to represent their country in their coming out party. When comparing the two countries, there exist cultural differences in their approach to the games. The US athletes focus so much more about individualism, personal hard work and sweat to prove oneself. The Chinese athletes do it out of sheer pride for their country and their family. It is more about face than personal glory.

I root for both countries’ athletes and it’s not that conflicting. Today’s basketball game between the US and China showcased a superior team beating the lights out of the host nation. I felt great about it because the US did it with talent and hard work, none of the show-boating and on-court mockery that resulted in their past failures. The Chinese team, lost graciously and with pride. Epitomized by one of the classiest basketball players in the world, Yao Ming, the losing team never played scared and gave their full efforts up to the end of the buzzer. There wasn’t any sense of dirty plays or complaining. I wasn’t alone in seeing Yao cheer his team on at the end, jumping and hollering. When the two teams shook hands at the end of the game, you can see the genuine respect for him from the entire US coaching staff. While this was a case where US was expected to win, in other situations, I expect the best athlete to win, plain and simple, and I’m looking forward to the next two weeks of world class competition.