Repression of athletes from Hong Kong, sexist offenses against a gold medalist, and criticism of a Chinese ambassador who tried to be kinder than usual.
by Liu Mengyao
The Tokyo Olympics ended last Sunday. Nationalist Chinese netizens had expected for China to “win the Olympics” and get more medals, or at least, more gold medals than the United States. This did not happen, and nationalist Olympic statistics disappeared from Chinese social networks all of a sudden.
International media covered the case of two Chinese athletes who exhibited Chairman Mao pins during the medal ceremony. They were not punished by the International Olympic Committee, which however clarified that this should not be done again.
Other incidents were less covered internationally, but are perhaps more interesting.
The first concerns Hong Kong, which competed as a separate territory and whose athletes obtained exceptionally good results, scoring six medals, including one gold (perhaps without pleasing Bitter Winter’s Italian editors, Edgar Cheung Ka-Long defeated the Italian favorite to win men’s individual foil). This created a problem, as Chinese law now mandates that the Chinese national anthem should be played in all ceremonies for Hong Kong. This was duly done for the fencing’s winner, but was not well received by Hong Kong netizens, who posted doctored videos where the Chinese anthem was replaced by “Glory to Hong Kong,” an old hymn that has been prohibited by the CCP in 2020. One of these videos quickly gathered 200,000 views. An investigation for “separatism” was launched, and those who doctored the videos risk heavy jail sentences.
The CCP decided that a closer look at Hong Kong athletes was needed. Badminton star Angus Ng Ka-Long was publicly attacked for wearing a black shirt reminiscent of the color of Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, and for not displaying the prescribed emblem. He had to apologize, and to explain his shirt with a problem of sponsors.
The second incident concerned Chinese female athlete Gong Lijiao, who won the shot put in Tokyo. The CCP television CCTV interviewed her. The interviewer called her a “masculine woman,” and suggested that perhaps she is not married because men are scared of her strength and appearance. Gong answered humorously that she is really a sweet girl even if she may not look like one, but many netizens protested against CCTV, noting that sexist stereotypes still dominate the official television.
The third incident concerns Qin Gang, China’s new ambassador to the U.S. On August 8, Qin tweeted his congratulations to Team USA for being first in the medal tally (and to Chinese athletes for their results). This was a wise move from a newly appointed ambassador. But not enough “wolf-warrior-style” for many Chinese netizens. Twitter is blocked in China, but Qin’s tweet found its way to local social media, where Chinese nationalist netizens accustomed to hail the wolf warriors expressed their displeasure and attacked the United States.
Olympics should be about fairness, friendship, and peace. But not everywhere.
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
