Freedom.....again
Well my last exam to cap off my 7th semester at university was this morning, IFA (Interminably Feared Aggression or... Intermediate Financial Accounting). I'd like to report that it wasn't as bad as I expected, thank God for the last minute cramming I did last night, I swear it did a world of good. So... with a firm exhalation... I think... I passed... "whew".At the exam venue this morning (ahh good old Royal Exhibition Building, a beautiful building that I know associate with absolute misery), every other conversation was about the football (every other one was about "omg I am going to fail/failed!")). And interestingly, many people were still discussing the Socceroos match from Monday night (and with good reason... it was awesome). Many people seemed to be discussing the South Korea match last night also, and these people were mostly of the Asian variety. I also noticed last night at the library that it cleared out at around 10.30, half an hour before the start of the match... and I over heard about a dozen conversations like "yeah, I'm going to go watch the Korea match".
The first thing I'd like to say is that I'm very happy that football (that's right, the real football) finally has the sort of attention it rightly deserves in this country. The second observation is a bit of a broad generalisation (that i recognise does not apply to all, but most) and also, somewhat an outsider's point of view, so bear with me... but I'd like to address this concept of "Asian pride" particularly in the sporting area.
OK, I find this concept somewhat hilarious. Almost all the Singaporeans, Malaysians (Note: I'm talking about Singaporeans and Malaysians of the Chinese variety ;-)), Honkies and Taiwanese people I know are supporting Japan and/or Korea at the world cup. To the point where they were actually sad that Australia won (here's looking at you Poony!).
I find this laughable. First of all, if Hong Kong, Taiwan (don't even mention China) were participating in a sporting event, the chance of a Korean backing them would be extremely slim, and the chance of a Japanese backing them would be non-existent. This goes double for Singapore and Malaysia, I don't think most Japanese even consider those two countries to be in the same continent as them, South East Asia is just so far away... with Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
When it comes to the World Cup, Japanese fans would be quicker to pick up a "cool" foreign team like Brazil, Italy or maybe even Australia (apparently they have won a lot of foreign fans over there and a few of my Korean friends purport to be supporting Australia as their second team). If Malaysia or Singapore were involved, I guarantee you would not find many Japanese rooting for them.
This leads me to believe that this "Asian Pride" is somewhat one-way. When we speak about popular culture (of which sport is a part), the influence of the Korean and Japanese in this area, across the rest of Asia, is well known and widespread. Japanese music and fashion has long held a sway over Asia, as has the "Korean wave" of movies and drama series. But how many popular Chinese artists ever make it in the far far east? Even the biggest ones fail to break through there... (i think Kelly Chen is the only I know of who's sold any records in Japan... although I think Jay Chou has tried). How many Chinese movies achieve boxoffice success?
I use China as an example because at least they have a well developed local entertainment industry, not something Malaysia (Malay-language is pervasive) or Singapore (they have Stephanie Sun and that horrible SARS rap) can claim.
Granted, my knowledge of these things is limited, but you can all see where I'm going with this. Kids in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan... even as far as Thailand, love Japan and Korea... but is this reciprocal? I think not.
So there you go, rethink your allegiances kids. I love Japan and Korea as much as the next person, they are cool, I study one of the lanaguages and am also a fan of Nakata and co. But I don't agree with following their team with a fanatical allegiance and blocking out influence from the other cool teams at the World Cup. After all, it's not just about the hairstyles, but also about the football!
So yeah, that's my two cents. Feel free to comment with your thoughts.
Alex
posted by LX @ 4:01 PM
Comments: 10
