Some of you might have dim memories of Michael Chang, who was briefly famous, the only Asian-American tennis star of his day. Chang was the child of an ROC diplomat's daughter and a mainlander who both grew up in Taiwan and later emigrated to the US. Slate has a long article by Huan Hsu called "Dear Michael Chang: You ruined my tennis career. Thanks for nothing." Humorous and informative, everyone will recognize the ultimate Chinese son:Before Chang, we were free to dream about becoming Boris Becker, that Teutonic badass who strutted around the baseline, blasting aces, or Edberg, the square-jawed Swede with a stylish attacking game and a hot blond girlfriend. Now we were stuck with the introverted, 5-foot-9 (on his best day) Chang, a devout Christian with a cream-puff serve who scrapped his way to the French Open title with borderline bush-league tricks (moonballing, crowding the service line on returns, the instantly legendary underhand serve). Worst of all, his dragon-lady mother once stuck her hand down his shorts after a practice to check if they were wet. At the Junior Davis Cup! In front of his friends! After Becker retired, he impregnated a woman in a restaurant's cleaning closet; when Chang hung up his sticks, he studied theology at Biola University.
Chang didn't defy Chinese stereotypes; he simply ushered them into the arena. He was hardworking, intelligent, humble, forever prepubescent. His parents, Joe and Betty, were research chemists. His older brother, Carl, went to Berkeley. When the boys were young, Joe, in what seems to me to be classic Chinese cheapskate fashion, scrimped by taking notes during Carl's lessons so that he could replicate them for Michael afterward.
.......
When Chang stalled in the rankings, unable to get over the final hump, he attempted to transform himself from a grinder to a power player. To great fanfare, he had his racket company, Prince, design a stick that was one inch longer than the industry standard. It improved his serving angle but also reminded everyone that Chinese guys had to compensate for genetic shortcomings besides our height. Where did Prince add that inch of length? To the shaft, naturally.
Hilarious.
[Taiwan]
While sort of entertaining just because of his view on Michael Chang's influence on his tennis career... other than that this was a horrible piece. My question is who is this guy? He comes off as blaming Michael Chang for his failings at his losses.
ReplyDeleteWhile those "bush-league tactics" may not be so "professional" these days; part of tennis is about the mental game. Ever wonder why tennis players yell "C'mon!?" It's to pump up ourselves and at the same time intimidate the opponent.
Anyways, if I could leave a comment for him I would. If he says he had a coach that attempted to coach him to be like Chang, then he needed to find a new coach. But to think that just because his coach wanted him to use a two handed bh and use less fancy shots does not mean he was trying to mold him to be like Chang just because he was Asian. He had it all wrong in trying to NOT be like Chang. He needed to find what he was comfortable with regardless of what the pros did.
Dear Huan Hsu, You ruined your own tennis career.
Yes, a very funny article indeed.
ReplyDeleteI think Huan Hsu knows his career failure is his own. He's just poking fun at the idea that some have that Chang was some big breaker of stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really great, is that I have seen him used as just the opposite; an example of the contradictions of defining "Chinese". He was not born in China, he does not speak a sinitic language, he calls Mercer Island in Washington State his home, he is not a Confucian culturalist, but a Christian...and yet Chinese nationalists love to claim him as their own... while defining Chinese as a set of commonalities including: Language, culture, location, Han-ness (i.e. Confucian culturalist behavior) and the like. Exactly what do they share again?
ReplyDeleteGreat humorous stereotyping!
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that the next generation of Chinese successfuls probably won't share the same characteristics or idiosyncrasies; their attitudes will most likely seem...Western.
hey anon, i'm with you on this one. the piece was excellent on poking fun at the assertion that michael chang broke chinese stereotypes but the stereotypes themselves and how they lump together asians and asian-americans (and all the different cultures under the umbrella asian) are pretty ridiculous too.
ReplyDelete---while defining Chinese as a set of commonalities including: Language, culture, location, Han-ness (i.e. Confucian culturalist behavior) and the like. Exactly what do they share again?---
ReplyDeletewell. welcome to "oversea chinese" idea..
"Overseas Chinese"
ReplyDeleteExactly!
In trying to reach out to the far corners of the globe, the term Chinese means almost nothing. That's why I usually avoid it for anything that does not refer to the PRC nation state.
"It's worth noting that the next generation of Chinese successfuls probably won't share the same characteristics or idiosyncrasies; their attitudes will most likely seem...Western."
ReplyDeleteChang's attitudes were also Western - he was a born-again Christian, the type of person who cringes when seeing "pagan idols" in a Taiwanese temple. Then again, he was just weird. Remember his comments about being a 30-year-old virgin?
Actually, tennis is a Western game. It's an incredibly individual pursuit. You cannot blend into a group or team when you do it. Chang was a fluke, who just snuck in and snatched a single championship. I remember McEnroe on this guy: "If he wins Wimbledon, I'll drop my shorts on center court."
Wasn't CKS the perfect Christian Chinese stereotype? I love the picture of him holding the bible spread open in his hand with that typical politician pose like Mr. Obama. Change, you're going to regret what you get!
ReplyDeleteMaybe Chang is just trying to be like CKS?
I have a book "authored" by Soong Mei Ling from 1943. She plays up the Christian angle to the hilt in an effort to guilt American Christians into putting pressure on their leaders to give the ROC favorable Lend Lease agreements. There's the Chiangs kissing orphans and high talk about Free, Christian China. It's a hoot.
ReplyDelete