4 ms·

Tokyo Olympics: [Online] Chinese nationalists turn on their athletes

12 points by azalemeth 5y ago

prawn 5y ago
Chinese HN readers, who would you guess comprises these online commenters denigrating their athletes? Are they everyday people? Educated and polite sorts? The Chinese equivalent of a bogan? Ben Simmons withdrawing from the Australian basketball team after an apparent mental breakdown in the NBA post-season wasn't well received by many Australian basketball fans. Some of the forum posts have been a bit ridiculous, so I'm wondering about the sorts of people getting caught up in the reactions in that case, and the Chinese example.
- samspenc 5y ago
  Quite possibly the government's Wu Mao [1][2] based on similar incidents in the past. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party [2] https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/who-are-chinese-trolls-50-cent-army https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/who-are-chinese-tr...
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    I would bet a lot more than 50c that the CCP isn't involved in a state-sponsored campaign to berate their own athletes, undermine social cohesion and tip the scales more in the favour of a cultural revolution 2.0.
    - prawn 5y ago
      Not to mention that the public in other parts of the world seem quite capable of rubbishing their athletes without much government provocation.
    - lumberingjack 5y ago
      So you don't think that a country that allows many of it's citizens to constantly die in brutal infrastructure accidents would start a propaganda campaign stating that they're most patriotic are not patriotic enough?
blueflow 5y ago
... did they just admit that Taiwan is not part of China? Edit: im referring to the chinese nationalists, not the newspaper journalists
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  "China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, but many Taiwanese people disagree and want a separate nation."
  - blueflow 5y ago
    If China got both gold and silver medal in badminton, what are the Chinese nationalists complaining about?
    - bArray 5y ago
      This is exactly the doublethink that George Orwell was warning of in Nineteen Eighty-Four [1]. When you accept that an ideology (Communism) is perfect, then any contradiction found must be in your mind and not in the ideology itself. What's really concerning is how easily this has infected Western democracies too. In the UK I am reminded of the Parkfield School Muslim-LGBT disagreement, where people knew there was a problem, they were just unable to formulate what it was [2]. An even better example was the 'Islam is right about women' poster - everybody agreed it was a 'hate crime', but nobody was able to explain why [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink [2] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8635881/school-stops-lgbt-teacher-muslim-parents-protest/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8635881/school-stops-lgbt-teac... [3] https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/26/the-genius-of-the-islam-is-right-about-women-stunt/ https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/26/the-genius-of-the-i...
      - lumberingjack 5y ago
        I was just thinking about the Democratic party that left me behind with no one to vote for because they turned so violently left that no one thinks anything else is the right path. It's an ideology that the world can be a perfect place without murder or crime and that's not obtainable at all.
kaycebasques 5y ago
> Given the competitive nature of the Olympics, people getting upset over any losses is, of course, hardly unique to China. Gotta take this article with a big grain of salt. As the article mentioned, it's hardly unique to China. To use the most extreme and tragic example, a Colombian was killed after scoring an own goal [1] in the 1994 World Cup. A big purpose of these national competitions seems to be giving nationalists a symbolic, nonviolent way to compete with other nations. Especially when 2 countries have a history of actual warfare. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar
Shadonototro 5y ago
the US does the same, why nobody talk or complain about this? this anti-china propaganda has to stop, brainwashing your people is counter productive then you end up with anti-vax people and as a result fail to control a pandemic, in a 1st world country lol flagged
jacknews 5y ago
I think the whole thing is a hall of mirrors. On the one hand, the BBC is hardly impartial. But nationalist fervor has very clearly been stoked by the Chinese government in recent years, and they appear to be on a deliberate collision course. I this case, I suspect the Chinese government let the trolls loose online to stoke nationalist feeling, and then officially reign them in, to appear reasonable. It seems to be a new cold war, and both sides are propagandizing their populations, though China appear to me to be more blatant about it.

12 points by azalemeth 5y ago

Chinese HN readers, who would you guess comprises these online commenters denigrating their athletes? Are they everyday people? Educated and polite sorts? The Chinese equivalent of a bogan? Ben Simmons withdrawing from the Australian basketball team after an apparent mental breakdown in the NBA post-season wasn't well received by many Australian basketball fans. Some of the forum posts have been a bit ridiculous, so I'm wondering about the sorts of people getting caught up in the reactions in that case, and the Chinese example.

samspenc 5y ago
Quite possibly the government's Wu Mao [1][2] based on similar incidents in the past. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party [2] https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/who-are-chinese-trolls-50-cent-army https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/who-are-chinese-tr...
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  I would bet a lot more than 50c that the CCP isn't involved in a state-sponsored campaign to berate their own athletes, undermine social cohesion and tip the scales more in the favour of a cultural revolution 2.0.
  - prawn 5y ago
    Not to mention that the public in other parts of the world seem quite capable of rubbishing their athletes without much government provocation.
  - lumberingjack 5y ago
    So you don't think that a country that allows many of it's citizens to constantly die in brutal infrastructure accidents would start a propaganda campaign stating that they're most patriotic are not patriotic enough?

blueflow 5y ago

... did they just admit that Taiwan is not part of China? Edit: im referring to the chinese nationalists, not the newspaper journalists

AussieWog93 5y ago
"China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, but many Taiwanese people disagree and want a separate nation."
- blueflow 5y ago
  If China got both gold and silver medal in badminton, what are the Chinese nationalists complaining about?
  - bArray 5y ago
    This is exactly the doublethink that George Orwell was warning of in Nineteen Eighty-Four [1]. When you accept that an ideology (Communism) is perfect, then any contradiction found must be in your mind and not in the ideology itself. What's really concerning is how easily this has infected Western democracies too. In the UK I am reminded of the Parkfield School Muslim-LGBT disagreement, where people knew there was a problem, they were just unable to formulate what it was [2]. An even better example was the 'Islam is right about women' poster - everybody agreed it was a 'hate crime', but nobody was able to explain why [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink [2] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8635881/school-stops-lgbt-teacher-muslim-parents-protest/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8635881/school-stops-lgbt-teac... [3] https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/26/the-genius-of-the-islam-is-right-about-women-stunt/ https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/26/the-genius-of-the-i...
    - lumberingjack 5y ago
      I was just thinking about the Democratic party that left me behind with no one to vote for because they turned so violently left that no one thinks anything else is the right path. It's an ideology that the world can be a perfect place without murder or crime and that's not obtainable at all.

kaycebasques 5y ago

> Given the competitive nature of the Olympics, people getting upset over any losses is, of course, hardly unique to China. Gotta take this article with a big grain of salt. As the article mentioned, it's hardly unique to China. To use the most extreme and tragic example, a Colombian was killed after scoring an own goal [1] in the 1994 World Cup. A big purpose of these national competitions seems to be giving nationalists a symbolic, nonviolent way to compete with other nations. Especially when 2 countries have a history of actual warfare. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar

Shadonototro 5y ago

the US does the same, why nobody talk or complain about this? this anti-china propaganda has to stop, brainwashing your people is counter productive then you end up with anti-vax people and as a result fail to control a pandemic, in a 1st world country lol flagged

jacknews 5y ago

I think the whole thing is a hall of mirrors. On the one hand, the BBC is hardly impartial. But nationalist fervor has very clearly been stoked by the Chinese government in recent years, and they appear to be on a deliberate collision course. I this case, I suspect the Chinese government let the trolls loose online to stoke nationalist feeling, and then officially reign them in, to appear reasonable. It seems to be a new cold war, and both sides are propagandizing their populations, though China appear to me to be more blatant about it.