Quote:
Originally Posted by Hourglass
A lot of people forget that, as much as China has changed in the past 20 years, it still has a lot of catching up to do. Has anyone here ever been to a concert (dance, classical music) in China? It isn't pretty. Basic etiquette such turning off mobile phones, not making phone calls or talking during the performance often isn't observed (although it is definitely better in Beijing and Shanghai) -- not necessarily because they're being deliberately rude, but because your average Joe Bloggs on the street simply doesn't know how to behave. To give you a related example, in China I can recall several instances where I've sat next to people on airplanes who don't know figuring out how to fasten their seat belts. One guy ended up just tying his seatbelt in a knot!
Having people learn a chant isn't only about mobilizing the home side to support their team in an orderly and concerted fashion -- although I do agree with Hong Kongese and jhauser's observations. It's also about educating people about HOW to support the home team.
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A dose of misplaced loyalty, rampant nationalism (I seriously HATE nationalism... petty squabbles about lines on a map.) and indoctrination.
Reminds me of the Women's Soccer match last year between
Germany and Japan
Now if that isn't a byproduct of rampant nationalism (have to read the article) then I don't know what is.
edit: Actually, this is probably a better article:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/7281
It says basically that it's common to do things like booing during national anthems as misguided nationalism. It's probably why there are "government-sanctioned" cheers.
In saying all this, though, I put less blame on the Chinese people themselves, and more with the education and possibly government previous policies in educating their citizenry. There's a lot of inequality in China still, and where inequality exists, people do whatever they can to be "top dog." This leads to a general attitude that there isn't really such a thing as "unacceptable" conduct if it accomplishes the end goal... which in terms of the Olympics, means China must win all the gold medals. prejudice and ethnic hatred is learned, not inherited. The west is still working on it as well, but it took more than 50 years to do so.
Other conduct such as public spitting are being campaigned against too.
It's good that Beijing is stressing etiquette... I just hope it continues going forward.