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Guangzhou boat race points up silliness of constant kowtowing to public officials
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IT takes an outsider to spoil the show.
On May 7, Guangzhou, capital of southern China’s Guangdong Province, held its annual international boat race on the Pearl River. A total of 103 teams from around the world participated.
During the 20-year history of the race, the team composed of top Guangzhou officials — including Party chief Wan Qingliang and Mayor Chen Jianhua — has won the championship for the last three years. But this year its winning streak came to an end after it lost to opponents from Holland.
News of the loss was greeted with much ridicule, as there finally came along an audacious competitor who stole the show.
The Dutchmen were indeed audacious, and uninitiated, because they didn’t play by the “rules” — unspoken yet familiar to their hosts — that one is wise to throw the game upon the officials, to give them “face.”
It might or might not have occurred to the cadres that their past victories were actually not that convincing.
After all, they are famous for sedentary work and wining and dining, not for being particularly athletic.
Some observers surmise that inviting the Dutch might have been a tactical move to suit both ends: to ensure fair play as well as save the leaders’ “face” as the alpha male. They still finished second anyway.
But speculation is hard to prove. What’s more, the official canoeists finished second, which means, other than the unwitting Dutch, all the other 101 teams were complicit in conceding defeat.
To say the official canoeists were bested by their superior Dutch counterparts would be missing the point. In essence, it is the hidden rule that’s partially, yet decisively, defeated by the explicit rule about fair play. The Dutch canoeists are comparable to the child who states the obvious that the emperor is naked.
Guangzhou officials are long known for their openness and candor. Wan, the Party chief, actually took the defeat in good humor, saying they need more exercises. I trust these folks are too good to be bitter about this “shock” loss. The problem is, such matches have raised a highly embarrassing question.
The officials may have wanted to make an exemplary contribution to the promotion of the sport, but their bona fides paled in comparison to the omnipresent thought that leaders must be accorded top honors in whatever they do.
Some criticized the Guangzhou officials for being showy. The game would be immune to controversy if they had chosen to stay out of it. To be fair, the officials were not entirely at fault. What’s really repulsive is the very idea that leaders deserve flattery.
Hidden rules
In a broader sense, this obsequiousness is chiefly to blame for the bootlicking yes men that populate Chinese politics. Since few insiders dare to challenge their bosses, let alone offend them, challenge can only come from outsiders.
Cases abound of games ending up as laughing stocks when leaders are involved. In July 2013, Bengbu City of Anhui Province held a soccer tournament across all government agencies. The mayor’s team unsurprisingly won the trophy. And he himself netted four goals in a single match.
I don’t know if the mayor was proud of this feat, but if I were him, and had I told the opponents to throw the game, I would feel pretty angry and silly.
That a competitive canoe match eventually turned into a charade is a sorry reminder that we have lost the courage to rail against insidious “hidden” rules.
It’s unclear if the official canoeists will appear at the event next year, or if more “ignorant” foreign teams will be invited. I’d rather believe that Guangzhou, being a cosmopolitan city, can learn from the uproar, and start battling the obnoxious influence of hidden rules.
Some observers questioned the wisdom of putting all the leaders on the same team — who would have the nerve to take on “the whole leadership”? Why not embed them within separate teams? they propose.
What will likely happen as a result of this peculiar arrangement is something as undesirable as deliberately losing the game.
The winning teams will probably be ranked in order of power their star players command — denoting tacit recognition of hierarchy. For example, the team of Party chief comes in first, followed by the mayor’s team and deputy mayor’s team.
Joking aside, the story of the boat race carries a moral, pertinent to the anti-pomp campaign the Party is spearheading.
Only when leaders are willing to step out of the spotlight and play second fiddle can we expect less of such farce.
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