8-16-08 Men's Ping Pong Semi-finals: A New Creature Emerges?

Remember that movie Gremlins? Those cute, cuddly creatures that suddenly turn unpredictably wild and scary?

Well, tonight at the Beijing University Gymnasium we experienced a new type of Olympic event, Gremlin-style. In the past, audiences (overwhelmingly Chinese) have been very politically, or at least Olympically, correct: they've cheered for the Olympics, or for both or either competing team, and even seemed to be a bit soft-hearted and cheered for the underdog to encourage good games. Tonight, the soft-side turned tough.

China was in semi-final competition with Korea in ping-pong, practically the national sport of China. Here there was no cheering for the underdog. In a sport where, my Inner Mongolian seatmate said, cheering is subdued and orderly (as in cheering for the players, but no more), suddenly a whole-hearted LOUD and repeated national cheer for Chinese players and the Chinese team continued throughout the evening. The cheering from flag-waving, red & gold clad audience members almost (but not quite) disregarded the regular postings on the large screen "No Cheering during Serve" and seemed to encourage the Chinese players and, in the end, out-psyched the Korean players (who, to me, seemed stronger in the beginning). An occasional English (with Chinese accent) cry of "I hate Korea!" was balanced by a Mandarin (with foreign accent) cry of "Korea is our friend! Hanguo shi wo pengyou!"

The crowd warmed up the cheers for Ma Lin; he won, then lost (twice), and then came back to win the fourth and final games to win the match. In the second and third games, the Korean player was strong. But he breaks in the fourth game, and Ma Lin, with HUGE crowd encouragement, wins that and the fifth game 11-5 to win the match.

Already pumped, the audience enthusiastically cheers for the next Chinese player Wang Hao. There are a few Korean flags in the audience, but their voices are not heard above the cheers of the home crowd. The serves of the players are amazing - serpentine twists of the wrist close to the body, a small drop and suddenly players are 15 feet away from the table, smashing and saving incredible shots! Gasps and cries flow from the crowd during the ebb and flow of each rally. Players sweat, grimace, position, and pump after successful plays. The officials, in contrast, sit impassively rendering points. Wang Hao successfully wins Games 1 and 2 for China. The Korean wins Game 3 11-6, but he seems to be faltering under the steady cheers for Wang Hao. Game 4, Wang Hao wins and the crowd goes wild!

My Mongolian neighbor says the crowd is too loud. The doubles team members are now on the court and, frankly, the Chinese look pumped and the Koreans anxious. The games are quick in China's favor: 11-4, 11-6, 11-5. In the last game I start cheering for Korea because they are scoreless and I always cheer for the underdog. I get dirty looks from my neighbors, but when I say (in Mandarin) I don't like zero scores, they shrug. They are confident it won't matter; and it didn't, except to me.