Yesterday my tutor and I headed to the park with our ice cream (me with my coffee) and started talking about whatever came to mind in Chinese. Parks, water fountains, names of popular American Restaurants which lead to the different between a king (wang 王) and an emperor (Huang Di 皇帝). Then this brought us to other titles such as president and chairman and the differences. We touched a little bit of the history of the Kuomintang (Guo min dang 国民党) The Nationalist Party and The Gong Dong （中共）Communist Party the current leaders of the People's Republic of China. We talked a little bit about how some of the leaders' names are pronounced different in China than in the US. But neither one of us wanted to delve too far in to this history today. I remembered I left my tennis bag in the back of my truck with some valuables inside, so I excused myself to retrieve it. Before I knew it after a suggestion by my friend we were off to the tennis courts to resume our lessons on the court.
Although I wasn't anticipating a rousing match. I was excited to learn a few Chinese vocabulary words. As my Quizlet Account will verify, I learned several words like , forehand (正手 zhènɡ shǒu) , backhand (反手击球 fǎnshǒujīqiú), serve (发球 fā qiú), and a few others. The learning style was fun. Every time I hit a forehand I would yell, "Zheng Shou!" Of course my tones were terrible but as a kinetic learner I felt I was improving. Everytime the ball bounced out I would yell, "Jie Wai!" in, "Jie Nei" net, "Qu Wang!" ect. The lesson went well I thought and we got a little blood pumping in the mean time. We then finished up our lesson, me by heading to the rock wall on campus and my buddy heading home.
Tennis is a funny sport in a collectivist society. While China thrives in similar individual sports such as ping-pong and badminton, until recently China had not had much luck producing a high quality tennis player to compete at the highest level. There were a couple double teams to make an impact in the early 2000s but recently the Chinese tennis and sports world has been rocked by Li Na. Li Na is the first Chinese national to win a Grand Slam. (Well Michael Chang did but he is Chinese American. He won the French Open in 1989 at 17 years old)
Li Na has started a new program which has been named "Flying Solo" 单飞. What this means is that Li Na along with other Chinese tennis players were able to break away from the normal standard from what is the norm for professional Chinese professional athletes. This means first off, instead of giving 65% of her winnings to China she gives less than 10%. This also means she no longer goes through the normal path of a Chinese Athlete which is through the Chinese system which is similar to the Soviet Union. When they spot a talented athlete as a child they start them in a regimented program in special schools designated for athletes. Li Na also started this way. But she was part of the first group to "fly solo." And has been criticized and praised for this fact.
When she won the French Open she was praised, when she lost in the olympics she was called selfish for only succeeding in an event that promotes herself rather than her country. She has a tattoo in an ever changing but still relatively conservative in their view towards tattoos. She talks about "playing for herself." rather than for her country. She is independent but from a collectivist country, she is considered cool yet selfish. She flying solo... with 1.4 billion fans cheering her on because she's Chinese. Li Na has changed the idea of what it means to be a Chinese professional athlete.
Check out her interviews. She's funny. She's outgoing. She just wants to be herself. Yet being yourself is so much more complicated when you represent so many.
Good news, her autobiography has been released in English.
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