Yao secret out: Baby on the way
By Wang Xiangand Lydia Chen |
January 6, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE of Shanghai's favorite sons, NBA star Yao Ming, and his wife are expecting their first child this summer.
His legion of fans have two key questions.
Boy or girl, how tall will the child eventually become?
If the child is a boy, will he one day lead China's national basketball team just like his father?
The pregnancy of Yao's wife, Ye Li, 29, a former player of the Chinese women's basketball team, was accidentally leaked to media thanks to a slip of the tongue by her close friend and former teammate, Miao Lijie.
Miao and Ye were scheduled to appear as guests on a television show. Miao turned up alone and was asked the whereabouts of her friend. She replied that Ye had to avoid public activities as she was expecting a baby. Oops.
She then said that Ye, who is staying in Shanghai, was in good spirits and enjoyed approaching motherhood.
Ye had started to read books about how to raise children and kept a strict early-to-bed timetable, Miao said.
Yao has just returned to Shanghai from Los Angles after doing his ambassador's job for promotional activities for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo at the weekend.
Zhang Chi, the spokesman for Team Yao, said the couple thanked the public for their care and good wishes.
However, they requested "more personal space."
That may be impossible.
The baby, who is bound to grow under the media spotlight, has already sparked frantic online chat.
In a survey taken by 43,344 people on Sina.com by 4pm yesterday, 41 percent, or 17,824, of respondents, predicted that Yao's baby would be about 2.05 to 2.20 meters, shorter than the father's 2.26m but taller than Ye's 1.90m.
The prediction was supported by genetic data, which came to the conclusion that the baby, if a girl, might reach 2.01m or 2.14m if a boy.
The calculation has a margin of error of 7 centimeters, according to the statistics.
Miao said the couple hoped the child was a boy as they felt it might be a headache for an overly tall girl.
Yao, 30, is the tallest player in the NBA.
His parents are both former basketball players, the father 2.08m and the mother 1.88m.
Yao said when he married Ye in 2007 that he hoped they had a boy and girl.
They are allowed to have a second child as both come from one-child families.
Online users were also abuzz about names.
A Netizen on Mop.com, a popular online forum, suggested that the child should be named Yao Qianshu, which means magic money trees in Chinese, while another opted for Yao Ye, or Yao Lan.
Yao Ye is a combination of the couple's surnames and is pronounced the same as the word flickering in Chinese. The given name of Lan stands for basketball in Chinese.
Yao said in a recent interview that the prospect of being able to play basketball with his son one day was the incentive that pushed him to have surgery to repair a broken bone in his left foot that forced him out of the entire 2009 season.
"I asked the doctors whether some day in the future, if I had a son, would I be able to get onto the court and play basketball with him without the surgery," Yao said.
"They told me no. I want to have a normal life. I want to be able to do those things with my son. So why not have this and try to play again?"
His legion of fans have two key questions.
Boy or girl, how tall will the child eventually become?
If the child is a boy, will he one day lead China's national basketball team just like his father?
The pregnancy of Yao's wife, Ye Li, 29, a former player of the Chinese women's basketball team, was accidentally leaked to media thanks to a slip of the tongue by her close friend and former teammate, Miao Lijie.
Miao and Ye were scheduled to appear as guests on a television show. Miao turned up alone and was asked the whereabouts of her friend. She replied that Ye had to avoid public activities as she was expecting a baby. Oops.
She then said that Ye, who is staying in Shanghai, was in good spirits and enjoyed approaching motherhood.
Ye had started to read books about how to raise children and kept a strict early-to-bed timetable, Miao said.
Yao has just returned to Shanghai from Los Angles after doing his ambassador's job for promotional activities for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo at the weekend.
Zhang Chi, the spokesman for Team Yao, said the couple thanked the public for their care and good wishes.
However, they requested "more personal space."
That may be impossible.
The baby, who is bound to grow under the media spotlight, has already sparked frantic online chat.
In a survey taken by 43,344 people on Sina.com by 4pm yesterday, 41 percent, or 17,824, of respondents, predicted that Yao's baby would be about 2.05 to 2.20 meters, shorter than the father's 2.26m but taller than Ye's 1.90m.
The prediction was supported by genetic data, which came to the conclusion that the baby, if a girl, might reach 2.01m or 2.14m if a boy.
The calculation has a margin of error of 7 centimeters, according to the statistics.
Miao said the couple hoped the child was a boy as they felt it might be a headache for an overly tall girl.
Yao, 30, is the tallest player in the NBA.
His parents are both former basketball players, the father 2.08m and the mother 1.88m.
Yao said when he married Ye in 2007 that he hoped they had a boy and girl.
They are allowed to have a second child as both come from one-child families.
Online users were also abuzz about names.
A Netizen on Mop.com, a popular online forum, suggested that the child should be named Yao Qianshu, which means magic money trees in Chinese, while another opted for Yao Ye, or Yao Lan.
Yao Ye is a combination of the couple's surnames and is pronounced the same as the word flickering in Chinese. The given name of Lan stands for basketball in Chinese.
Yao said in a recent interview that the prospect of being able to play basketball with his son one day was the incentive that pushed him to have surgery to repair a broken bone in his left foot that forced him out of the entire 2009 season.
"I asked the doctors whether some day in the future, if I had a son, would I be able to get onto the court and play basketball with him without the surgery," Yao said.
"They told me no. I want to have a normal life. I want to be able to do those things with my son. So why not have this and try to play again?"
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