Asian Games: Do the Asian Games really matter to Shanghai?

With more than 10,000 athletes from 45 countries and territories in Asia and the Middle East participating in the meet, the Guangzhou Asian Games are the largest in the history of the competition -- and China has led the medal count since day one.

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Since November 12, university professor Zhu Fang has developed a new daily routine. A few hours a day are devoted to watching the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games before and after classes.
“My favorite events are swimming, table tennis and women's volleyball,” says the Shanghai native, in his 60s, who teaches politics at Fudan University.
“It's fun for an old man like me to see the young ones displaying their talent and vitality. It's a celebration of life and youth and makes me feel younger watching them.”

“It's amazing how the three East Asian nations, China, South Korea and Japan dominate most of the games,” he adds. “It shows a remarkable connection between national development and sports and it makes me feel patriotic.”

Asian Games or the China Games?

Zhu’s sentiments are echoed by many other Shanghai residents, though few devote as much time as he does to following the athletic meet, which takes place in Guangzhou between November 12 and 27.
“I’ll watch it if I’m passing by a television set in the metro station or in shops that are showing any games,” says sales assistant, 30, Sun Lingling. “But I don’t mind if I miss some games, because I know that China will win anyway.”
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“Coming after very big events like the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, the Asian games are like a side dish rather than the main course,” says retiree Wang Song, 67. “There was much more enthusiasm when it was held for the first time in China.”

Echoing Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari’s comments last week that the Guangzhou meet was China’s opportunity to demonstrate its soft power to the world, marketing executive Christina Li, 27, said she felt “very emotional” while viewing the Games’ opening ceremony on television.
Together with an uncle and grandparents, her family watched all three hours of the live broadcast for the opening ceremony together at home.
Ever since Guangdong Province won hosting rights in 2004, more than RMB 109 billion has been invested in urban infrastructure projects, including the restoration of buildings and the construction of new subway lines and roads.
The air and water quality in Guangzhou has been improved and more than 70 stadiums have been newly built or upgraded in the last six years. Guangzhou residents have also been urged to behave in a more civilized manner as a massive education campaign was launched shortly after the city’s winning bid. A program akin to the anti-pajama campaign in Shanghai around the Expo.

If you want to talk about Gold medals, just look at our tally count at the Beijing Olympics, but how many of those were from team sports? Sports is more than just about a comparing one’s strength and physique.

— A Chinese netizen on the Asian Games

But not everyone feels the enthusiasm.

Not quite a cheering section

Biochemistry undergraduate Lucy Guo, 20, said that the distance between Guangzhou and Shanghai was a factor in explaining a cold reception towards the games among her peers in Shanghai.
“And anyway, we don’t have television sets in my dormitory,” she says, admitting that she had only heard about China’s first goal medal win by Yuan Xiaochao in the sport of Wushu through her more sporty friends, and only two days after it occurred.
Chinese netizen Xiaoqi wrote on her blog that even though the meet was going to end soon, she had not watched a single competition because she felt that “there was barely any atmosphere.”
The lack of atmosphere is reflected in many half-empty stadiums, even in the face of government announcements that tickets for events were sold out.
At some opening event, stadiums that could hold 12,000 people had fewer than 1,000 people in attendance.
“Coming after very big events like the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, the Asian Games are like a side dish rather than the main course,” says retiree Wang Song, 67. “There was much more enthusiasm when it was held for the first time in China,” he added, referring to the 1990 Asian Games hosted in Beijing.
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China’s Peng Shuai of China returns a shot to Akgui Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan during the women's singles final tennis match. Gold medallist Peng won 7-6, 6-2 over silver medallist Amanmuradova.

The Asian Games online

The Games have also generated much buzz in the blogosphere and on weibo, China’s version of Twitter, with netizens re-tweeting up-to-the-minute links to news articles and pictures of China’s latest wins.
With more than 10,000 athletes from 45 countries and territories in Asia and the Middle East participating in the meet -- the largest in the history of the Games -- Lazynatalie22 says that seeing China help to harmoniously bring together different Asian countries made her “feel extremely proud to be Chinese.”
Some, however, felt that China’s obsession with the gold medal count was contrary to the purpose of the games.
“If you want to talk about Gold medals, just look at our tally count at the Beijing Olympics, but how many of those were from team sports? Sports are about more than just comparing one’s strength and physique,” writes a Chinese netizen on his weibo account.

“The games have built up such a huge momentum that the Chinese public are no longer excited by yet another gold medal. Except for Liu Xiang’s event, the public has little enthusiasm for other sports. This is a problem,” wrote another Chinese netizen.
Liu, a former Olympic champion and world record holder, made his highly anticipated debut in the 110-meter hurdles event on Monday. The popular athlete -- China’s favorite sportsman after basketballer Yao Ming -- broke many hearts after limping out of the 2008 Olympics due to a hamstring injury.
Whether or not the Asian Games have found favor among its citizens, the country’s efforts have not been lost on foreigners. Promoting trade and establishing economic cooperation with its Asian neighbors have been cited as explicit motivations for hosting the games.
“It’s just another illustration of how China, when it sets its mind on something, will spare nothing to show the rest of the world that they can accomplish it,” says Shanghai-based Singaporean entrepreneur, Michael Tan, 36.