China's next target for world domination: Soccer
중국의 다음 목표는 축구로 세계를 지배하는 것이다.
BEIJING — For years, soccer in China has been a source of national embarrassment. It is the sport Chinese often care about most but also one that infuriates them most. For years, the most impressive ability of the men’s team has been its knack of finding new ways to disappoint.
베이징 - 수 년 동안, 중국의 축구는 국가적인 수치의 근원이 되어 왔다. 중국인들이 종종 가장 관심을 쏟을 뿐만아니라, 그들을 가장 좌절하게 만드는 스포츠가 바로 축구이다. 수 년 동안, 남자 축구팀의 가장 인상적인 능력은 여러 새로운 방식들은 실망을 시키는 성향이 되어 왔다.
knack [næk] n. ① 숙련된 기술; 교묘한 솜씨〔기교〕; 좋은 생각; 호흡, 요령《of; for; in making ...》; 교묘한 응답 ② 버릇; 특성, 성향(性向)
Then came President Xi Jinping.
그때 자이 진핑 국가주석이 등장했다.
Before he even took office, Xi made clear his love of the game. Explaining his personal ambitions for China in 2011, he listed three, all soccer-related: To qualify for soccer’s World Cup, to host the event and, finally, one day to win it.
그가 취임하기 전, 자이는 자신이 축구광임을 분명히 밝혔다. 2011년 중국을 위한 개인적 야망을 설명하면서, 그가 열거한 3개가 모두 축구와 관련된 것이었다. 첫째는 월드컵에 참가하는 것, 월드컵을 개최하는 것, 마지막은 월드컵에서 승리의 날을 보는 것이라 말했다.
Since then, Xi has quickly become China’s most powerful and feared leader in decades. And now, officials from the central government to the lowliest provinces are falling over themselves to demonstrate their own love for soccer and to find ways of improving their country’s play.
그때 이후, 자이는 수 십 년만에 등장한 중국의 가장 강력하고 무서운 지도자가 곧 되었다. 그리고 지금, 중앙정부에서 부터 가장 낮은 하위 지방 관리들에 이르기까지 그들 모두는 축구에 대한 열정을 보여주고 중국의 축구를 개선시키는 방법을 찾는데 혈안이 되고 있다.
In just the past few months, a high-level government working group has been set up to tackle the problem. Officials have declared soccer compulsory part of the national curriculum. About 20,000 soccer-themed schools are to open by 2017, with the goal of producing more than 100,000 players. Study-abroad programs have been rolled out, as well as initiatives to lure 35 international stars to China in the next year.
불과 지난 몇 달 후, 고위 정부 실무진은 그 문제를 해결하기 위해 구성되었다. 관리들은 국가적 이수과목으로서의 축구의 의무적 역활을 선언했다. 약 20,000개의 축구테마 학교가 2017년까지 세워질 예정이고, 100,000이상의 축구 선수들을 배출하기 위한 목표도 세워졌다. 해외연수 프로그램도 진행 중일 뿐만 아니라, 내년엔 35명의 국제 유명 축구선구도 영입할 계획도 진행 중이다.
Rumors have even circulated of a secret plan for soccer reform from the State Council, China’s equivalent of a presidential cabinet.
중국의 주석 각료회의와 동등한 위상의 국가 위원회로 부터 축구개혁에 관한 비밀 계획의 진행 중이라는 소문이 심지어 나돌지경이다.
All the attention and angst, of course, is about something bigger than soccer. To many here, the sorry state of Chinese soccer embodies all the problems and insoluble paradoxes China and its leader face.
모든 관심과 불안한 마음은, 물론, 축구 보다 더 큰 무언가에 관한 것이다. 이 곳 중국에서 많은 사람들에게 중국 축구의 유감스런 상황은 중국과 중국의 지도자들이 직면하고 있는 모든 문제거리와 풀 수 없는 모순을 구체화 시키고 있다.
angst [ɑːŋkst] n. (pl. äng·ste [éŋkstǝ]) 《G.》 불안한 마음; 고뇌.
em·body [embάdi/-bɔ́di] vt. ① (사상·감정 따위를) 구체화하다, 유형화하다. ② (주의 등을) 구현하다, 실현하다; (관념·사상을) 스스로 체현하다.
To compete globally, China needs innovation and creativity, and yet the Communist Party insists on top-down obedience and conformity by edict.
세계적인 경쟁력 확보를 위해, 중국은 개혁과 창의성을 필요로 하고 있지만, 중국 공산당은 하향식 복종과 포고에 의한 복종만을 고집하고 있다.
con·form·i·ty [kǝnfɔ́ːrmǝti] n. 적합, 일치 《to; with》; 상사(相似), 유사《to; with》; 준거, 복종; 순응주의
edict [íːdikt] n. (옛날의) 칙령, 포고; 명령.
Its government is hopelessly riddled with graft (a problem to which Xi has responded with the most ruthless anti-corruption campaigns in modern history).
중국정부는 부정이득으로 절망적으로 끽소리 못하고 있다. (자이가 현대 역사에서 가장 무자비한 반 부패청산 운동과 더불어 반응하고 있는 문제)
riddle 사실을 들어 (사람·이론을) 끽소리 못하게 하다.
graft [græft, grɑːft] n. 《미국》 (공무원 등의) 독직, 수회(jobbery, corruption); 부정 이득.
Runaway growth has afforded China resources, including money to plow into soccer development, foreign coaches and trainers, but the country has yet to figure out how to sustain that growth without creating more problems.
Soccer, in other words, taps into deep Chinese insecurities that — no matter what great leaps the country has made or grudging deference it has earned through economic or military might — China remains an inferior power.
As an editorial in China’s Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper framed it: Dreams have power, and the constant jarring reality of Chinese football threatens nothing less than the Chinese ability to dream of a more powerful nation.
Perennially losing
Most Chinese believe soccer was invented here, citing records from the 3rd century B.C. of a sport involving a hair-filled leather kickball.
To understand why soccer and its constant defeating sting are so deeply rooted in the Chinese psyche, you have to understand the country’s past, says Xu Guoqi, a Harvard-educated historian at the University of Hong Kong.
First, take into account centuries of feelings of emasculation at the hands of Western powers and the Japanese. (Curiously, the national hand-wringing mainly involves the men’s team; the women’s team often performs well to little fanfare.)
“For decades, Chinese interest in sports as a whole has not been about personal joy or pleasure but about politics,” Xu said. “It’s seen as a path to ruling legitimacy, geopolitical standing, projection of power.”
So just how bad is China’s soccer? Late last year, the men’s team wasranked 97th — a few spots behind the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda (population 90,000) and not far ahead of northern Europe’s Faroe Islands (population 49,500).
In the past three decades, China’s men’s team has made it into the quadrennial World Cup tournament only once (in 2002, when the team quietly exited without scoring a single goal).
Anger over China’s perennial failures has incited riots — notable in a country where protests are illegal and met with brutal force. Fearful of that rage, the national team has at times posted online apologies after particularly bad games.
Its most ignominious was perhaps a 2013 loss to Thailand’s weak and even lower-ranked team. A Chinese mob afterward blocked the team bus from leaving and shouted obscenities at the players. A full-fledged riot soon ensued, in which at least 100 were injured.
Contributing factors
The puzzling thing is that China has all the necessary ingredients for a strong team, including a nationwide love for the sport and a vast population (1.4 billion) from which to draw talent.
Several new policies are intended at widening that pool. The 20,000 existing elementary, middle and high schools chosen nationwide for renovation into soccer-focused institutions will receive soccer fields, coaches and extensive funding and training. Few details have been released about the new curriculum and what may be sacrificed to make room for soccer during the day.
Advanced students will be sent to overseas campuses that China is setting up in Spain and the Netherlands.
In Beijing, soccer will even be added to the mandatory high school entrance exams, and every school will be required to include soccer in its physical education.
There is precedent for government-orchestrated success. When, during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, sports mattered politically, China’s Soviet-era methods netted a record haul of gold medals.
As a game, however, soccer works quite differently, many believe. For all the sport’s deep-seated problems, it is still much harder to rig, train or even dope your way to a championship. It is a social sport that requires both teamwork and individual creativity.
Some blame Chinese society, given how few parents in China’s competitive education system will allow their children to spend precious study hours kicking a ball.
Others point to pervasive corruption among Chinese soccer officials.
A few sports analysts blame the political system. Speaking anonymously for fear of being known to have criticized the Communist Party, the analysts point out that few authoritarian or dictatorial countries have ever found success at the World Cup.
Doomed by success?
Xi’s public enthusiasm for soccer feeds into an everyman image that he has cultivated since he took power in late 2012 — a stark departure from China’s traditionally wooden leaders.
It comes with few risks — if Chinese soccer continues to fail, who can blame Xi? The upside, however, is infinite.
“It would mean leadership, legacy,” said Xu, the historian. “Xi is an ambitious man. If he pulls this off, he would be the hero of China.”
There already are glimmers of the pandemonium such success would bring.
Last month at the Asian Cup, China somehow won three games in a row. Although the team made it only to the quarterfinals, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency called it a “fairy-tale run.” The players were hailed as heroes.
Some on Chinese social media said they were moved to tears. One blogger summed up the moment this way: “I can now die with no regrets.”
And party officials, of course, leapt to take credit. The anti-corruption agency Xi has unleashed upon thousands of terrified government officials declared it a direct result of its watchful eye on soccer officials.
When asked about this scramble to bask in Chinese soccer’s newfound glory, Ma Dexing sighed deeply. As deputy editor in chief of the popular sports magazine Titan, Ma has a distinctly different theory about the recent wins.
For years, China’s team has been performing so poorly that officials were reluctant to wreck their careers by becoming involved with it.
That brief respite from constant, misguided top-down management, Ma believes, is what has most helped improve Chinese soccer.
Ironically, he worries, the team’s recent success — combined with the sudden upsurge of government interest — spells only one thing for Chinese soccer: doom.
“The level of Chinese soccer is actually not that bad,” he insists. The problem is everything else that comes with it.
Gu Jinglu contributed to this report.
William Wan is The Post’s China correspondent based in Beijing. He served previously as a religion reporter and diplomatic correspondent.
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