Comments on: Are Three Olympic Gymnasts Products of China’s Culture of Cheating?

By: Matthew Dickinson

Matthew Dickinson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:08:09 +0000

The point I’m trying to make is that if the Chinese were trying to cheat during the Olympics they would have used a lot more girls and boys instead of women and men for their athletes. They made a few mistakes. We probably made some mistakes too. I mean in the psat there’s been controversies about athletes taking medicine to get stronger and we have drug tests and regulations to try to stop that, but maybe a couple of people slipped through, and if China or Europe or Africa was more powerful they would have the power to critique us and provide an objective investigation into seeing if our athletes have been cheating.

Or something like that.

By: Matthew Dickinson

Matthew Dickinson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:59:04 +0000

Big deal. You know how many people live in China? And they all look alike. I’m not surprised at all if the Chinese themselves have trouble telling themselves a part and keeping it all a matter of systemitized record. Didn’t anyone learn anything from the beaucracy of the holocaust or The Trial (Orson Welles)? Or the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam. Mistakes get made, I mean most of their athletes were of the appropriate ages.

By: BritCheat

BritCheat — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:27:01 +0000

China wasn’t the only country to have competitors under the age of 16:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2529552/Tom-Daley-should-not-be-in-Beijing—Olympics.html

Just becasue the rules say it’s ok for a 14 year old to compete in diving, doesn’t mean it’s ok.

By: Liar Liar « The Brat Cave

Liar Liar « The Brat Cave — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:05:58 +0000

[...] the West of how an authoritarian state censors truth and confuses information with propaganda. One blogger goes so far as to say that cheating has become an epidemic in Chinese culture. At any rate, honesty [...]

By: j.macklby

j.macklby — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:18:36 +0000

Robert , you are not ‘quite’ correct in saying [to Chen] that after Mao’s death, his successors blamed Mao for all of the bad……….It is more that they blamed Mao’s WIFE [Jiang Qing] and ‘The Gang of Four’, because with ‘dear’ Mao no longer around, there was then nobody to protect her, so she made a ‘convenient scapegoat.’[Though 'evil' she certainly was, just like Mao.]

By: Mydnight

Mydnight — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:53:37 +0000

There is basically no denying that China has cheated the IOC out of some gold medals. It was mentioned in domestic and foreign media a few different times the ages of these girls; if you snoop around the net a bit, you can find it in English and Chinese dated prior to the Olympic oath. I don’t really have the interest in this subject enough to search it but feel free to try yourself.

The reason nothing is being done: I suspect someone or several people got hefty bribes. That’s the way to do business in China if you want to get things done quickly. I’ve done it; we’ve all done it.

Vance said correctly that nobody wants to take blame for anything here. Most cultures experience this to some extent but not in the exaggerated fashion that Chinese do. What happens when something bad happens in a place, like the Sichuan earthquake? A scapegoat is quickly found and executed or fired regardless to whether he had anything to do with the incident or not. Chinese people fear responsibility with the propensity that your average Joe is afraid of rattlesnake. It’s been this way for thousands of years? Do you think talking to them will do anything?

And, that’s exactly the point. When you point the finger at someone else, you still have four of your own fingers pointing back at you.

By: Chen

Chen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:20:49 +0000

@Mydnight
Thank you for bring it up. We do need to preserve our culture inheritance. Oh and the enviroment too.

By: Chen

Chen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:05:38 +0000

@Robert Vance
I noticed your effort of making outside world know more about China. Great work, carry it on.

Those Chinese you described bothers me too. I’m not totally against you, just suggesting there’s room to improve. In fact I agree with you on many aspects. It’s good someone can point out our problems. but I must make clear some stereotypes.

You write:
The people that I know, at least, say that China can do no wrong…and that everything bad that has happened in China in 2008 in relation to the Olympics is someone else’s fault.
What’s wrong with them, maybe I should talk to them directly.

By: Mydnight

Mydnight — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:31:58 +0000

@Chen on August 17th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

“What are you trying to prove? China makes no progress in the last 30 years?”

China has made great strides in economic progress. Cultural? I think not. They’ve somehow managed to destroy 5000 years of culture in 30 years.

By: Robert Vance

Robert Vance — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:19:44 +0000

@Chen,

If you ’sniff’ around this website a little bit, you will discover that I have defended China many times. I went on a radio show in the US a few weeks ago to talk about China’s tremendous progress over the past 30 years. It has been remarkable. I have often argued that we need to give China a chance because many great changes are still occurring in this relatively new ‘republic.’

However, even when there is mounting evidence that these gymnasts cheated, people here still deny the possibility and suggest that the U.S. is making it up because they are jealous. When I’m talking about admissions of guilt or apologies, I am talking about now…not thirty years ago. The people that I know, at least, say that China can do no wrong…and that everything bad that has happened in China in 2008 in relation to the Olympics is someone else’s fault. That is what bothers me.