Zhongshan-Theenvironmenttoproducesuperstars_During

原标题：Zhongshan-The environment to produce superstars

During some research for an article about the Chinese athlete Su Bingtian (can we place a link to the previous article here?), it became obvious that there was more than a passing coincidence between the way China’s athletic success and its overall society have developed. The research into Su’s amazing success, not just in Tokyo, but throughout his sporting and academic work in Guangdong’s Jinan University, caused the writer to think about Zhongshan, where Su was born, grew up and, like this writer, calls home. Zhongshan is a microcosm of a much bigger picture. A picture that begs closer examination. A picture in which layers of smaller images combine to present an overall pattern of achievements, a range of skills, enterprises, innovations and improvements leading to a society that is on the cusp of an extraordinary change.

To establish how this has happened, and why Zhongshan is such a great example of China’s overall development, we need to take an historical look back to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It was a time of chaos and turmoil; warlords were carving up this nation of 56 ethnicities and hundreds of different languages. At the same time colonial powers were encroaching into all regions of China; Russia in the North and West, Germany and Japan in the North, Britain in Hong Kong, Portugal in Macao. Concessions were opened in cities such as Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou in the East and as far into the centre of the country as Wuhan, Kunming, and Chongqing. Foreign traders controlled these concessions completely, in most cases Chinese weren’t even allowed to enter without papers issued by the power that held the region. The city of Tianjin alone had as many as 9 concessions ceded by the Qing Dynasty to foreign powers. Over a period of less than 100 years, there were as many as 46 different parts of China carved up and controlled economically, politically, legislatively and humiliatingly, quite legally, by 11 different countries[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concessions_in_China].

Missionaries leached their way into the country and set up missions in hundred of cities with a view to “bringing God to the barbarians” without giving a thought to the Chinese civilisation which had developed over hundreds of generations. They couldn’t recognise Chinese culture as civilisation nor could they understand it because Chinese people held different values from their version of what they considered “civilised behaviour”. A well-known book written before the fall of the Qing Dynasty described “Chinese Characteristics” using condescending chapter headings such as: Disregard of Accuracy; Contempt for Foreigners; Indifference to Comfort and Convenience; The absence of Sympathy, and many other such misunderstood notions of Chinese personality. Explaining to the readers several times throughout the book how China will only become civilised once they have accepted (our) God[ Chinese Characteristics: Arthur H Smith 1894 (Re-released in 2003 by Eastbridge Books)]. What China, quite rightly, and understandably calls its “Century of Humiliation” was well underway.

It was during these years and against this backdrop that Zhongshan’s personalities rose to the top of their fields to create an environment for change which set the foundations and direction of what China would become. It was these revolutionaries, innovators and entrepreneurs who made possible what Su Bingtian and his cohort are now achieving.

Sun Yat Sen, also known as Sun Zhongshan, born in 1866, is without a doubt, the most famous of that era. He was the one of the leaders of the group that eventually became the Guomindang (Kuomintang, KMT) and was, for about 3 months, of 1912, the first President of China. From the time he was president until well after his death, China was in turmoil, warlords fought each other, the KMT formed alliances with the communist party and other alliances with some of the warlords whilst fighting others and, for a while, everyone fought the Japanese. Most people though, just tried to live pragmatically through without getting too caught up in the issues of the day. Between Sun’s death, in 1925, and the forming of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 there was a constant state of unrest, even chaos. A Japanese invasion, World War 2 and China’s Civil War – nothing on an international scale and nothing on a geopolitical scale could be achieved.

In terms of sports, 1932 saw China represented in the LA Olympic Games by just one athlete, while Manchukuo, Japanese occupied Northeast China, was represented by another lone Chinese athlete. If we look back to these dark days, it’s hard to imagine the level of success being achieved now, just two generations later. But on a domestic scale, China and many of her citizens from Zhongshan, were setting the pieces in place for a new era.

From the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 until 1980, politics got in the way of sport, the Republic of China (ROC) had participated in 1932 (with one athlete Liu Changchun) and 1936 (54 athletes in 27 sports) but the PRC did not participate in an Olympic Games except for 1952 in Helsinki. Due to the politics of the day, the invitation to participate was not given to the PRC until one day before the opening games and lack of jet transportation in the era meant the it was impossible to arrange to fly a team there on time. Much to the disappointment of the recently formed PRC, travel arrangements meant the team arrived too late to take part with the exception of one event in which a swimmer called Wu Chuanyu competed in the pool. Wu was an interesting character who had the benefit of being born in Indonesia and, at various times in his career swam for the Republic of China, the People’s Republic of China and Indonesia. The Chinese football team took part in a couple of friendly games during the period and were represented in the closing ceremony.

Further machinations behind the scenes that year caused the ROC to withdraw from the 1952 Olympics and the Olympic committee to make a decision that meant the PRC would not participate again in any Olympics again. This was changed in 1979 and PRC were able to compete alongside an ROC team for the first time in 1980. At that point in time, it must have felt to the citizens of China that the “Century of Humiliation” was to be extended, sports were blocked and embargoes prevented open trade with the world.

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