It's a curious issue. China has rapidly come to dominate the world in individual or doubles sports. If it is a sport that requires only one or two people, China tends to excel (track and field being the notable exception).
But in team sports -- soccer, basketball, etc. -- they suck. And not just a little. Ask any Chinese citizen about their national soccer team, and they'll just hang their head in shame. China's performance has been abysmal. Any outstanding Chinese team player who wants to gain meaningful experience and skill must leave China to play on teams in other countries.
Yet Chinese culture is not an individualist culture, it is collectivist. It is a culture in which groups are supposed to work together. So why are individuals thriving, while teams are mired in incompetence and ineptitude?
A few years ago, I decided to launch my own (very unofficial and sporadic) investigation into this phenomenon. My initial hypothesis was that it was due to a combination of lack of money, and lack of proper coaching. It seemed reasonable that less money in sports would lead to a lower quality of player; and that inexperienced or poor quality coaching would inevitably result in sub-par performance.
And as it turns out, both of those issues may have some impact...but not as much as you might expect. These days, there's actually quite a bit of money being pumped into team sports like soccer and basketball, with a thriving national network of teams and tournaments.
And coaches? China's using that money to import top foreign coaches from all over the world. These are coaches who have led teams from other countries to national and even international championships. So it can't be an issue just of coaching.
Ultimately, the problem actually seems to be that issue of collectivism. I made an unwarranted assumption when initially thinking about this question...that collectivism leads to better teamwork. It's true...as a team, Chinese tend to get along with each other very well. But they don't excel. And the reason is that while collectivism encourages them to work together, it also discourages them from excelling as individuals. The team member who scores significantly more points than his teammates will face phenomenal peer pressure from them because he's making them look bad. Even the fans will criticize him, accusing him of being a show-off and a grand-stander, selfishly trying to do everything himself (even though he's leading his team to a victory).
I talked with quite a few Chinese players, who all confirmed this attitude. One soccer player, who scored three goals in one game for his team and was praised by his foreign coach, was subsequently ostracized by the rest of his teammates for more than a month, until he lowered his standard of play to a level that was equal with the rest of them. Why? Because when he did better than them, not only did he get praised as an individual (instead of the team sharing the praise collectively), but the rest of the team were criticized by the coach (causing them to lose face).
Most recently, I had a discussion with Jason Dixon about this. Jason is an American basketball player who came to play in the Chinese Basketball Association about a decade ago. He went on to become one of the top players in the sport here, and after retiring (and becoming assistant coach of the team he'd been playing for) became only the second player in China's history to have their number retired by their team (Yao Ming was the first). He's famous in China, and led his team to several national championships.
When I asked him about this, he agreed absolutely. All across China, foreign players (each team is allowed to import a few foreign players) are the top players on their teams. Why? Because they're not afraid to play as individuals. They don't care about the 'face' of their teammates, they care about winning games.
It probably helps that most of these foreign players don't mix much with the local Chinese players. They are housed separately, go out separately...they are together only when practicing or playing. So they just don't care that much when their Chinese teammates ostracize or criticize them.
Jason knows all the Chinese players who've had the chance to play on American teams, and he said that every one of them feels more comfortable and free to perform to their best ability when overseas...and that there is often a noticeable slump in their performance when they return to play for a Chinese team. One of the main reasons for this is that they feel pressure not to make the rest of their Chinese teammates lose face by playing too well.
Individual or pairs sports don't suffer from this problem; competitors in such sports have the freedom to excel, to do their best.
I've found this an interesting analogy for business. There's very much the same attitude. Teams tend to work together very well, so long as everyone on the team performs equally. If someone is performing poorly, the others on the team will put significant pressure on them to improve; in this way, the collectivist system can be beneficial.
But when someone on the team excels, it causes friction and discord. Not only fellow team members, but even the team leader, may feel that this overachiever is making them lose face. And they'll face significant pressure from all sides to stop making the rest of them look bad.
But in team sports -- soccer, basketball, etc. -- they suck. And not just a little. Ask any Chinese citizen about their national soccer team, and they'll just hang their head in shame. China's performance has been abysmal. Any outstanding Chinese team player who wants to gain meaningful experience and skill must leave China to play on teams in other countries.
Yet Chinese culture is not an individualist culture, it is collectivist. It is a culture in which groups are supposed to work together. So why are individuals thriving, while teams are mired in incompetence and ineptitude?
A few years ago, I decided to launch my own (very unofficial and sporadic) investigation into this phenomenon. My initial hypothesis was that it was due to a combination of lack of money, and lack of proper coaching. It seemed reasonable that less money in sports would lead to a lower quality of player; and that inexperienced or poor quality coaching would inevitably result in sub-par performance.
And as it turns out, both of those issues may have some impact...but not as much as you might expect. These days, there's actually quite a bit of money being pumped into team sports like soccer and basketball, with a thriving national network of teams and tournaments.
And coaches? China's using that money to import top foreign coaches from all over the world. These are coaches who have led teams from other countries to national and even international championships. So it can't be an issue just of coaching.
Ultimately, the problem actually seems to be that issue of collectivism. I made an unwarranted assumption when initially thinking about this question...that collectivism leads to better teamwork. It's true...as a team, Chinese tend to get along with each other very well. But they don't excel. And the reason is that while collectivism encourages them to work together, it also discourages them from excelling as individuals. The team member who scores significantly more points than his teammates will face phenomenal peer pressure from them because he's making them look bad. Even the fans will criticize him, accusing him of being a show-off and a grand-stander, selfishly trying to do everything himself (even though he's leading his team to a victory).
I talked with quite a few Chinese players, who all confirmed this attitude. One soccer player, who scored three goals in one game for his team and was praised by his foreign coach, was subsequently ostracized by the rest of his teammates for more than a month, until he lowered his standard of play to a level that was equal with the rest of them. Why? Because when he did better than them, not only did he get praised as an individual (instead of the team sharing the praise collectively), but the rest of the team were criticized by the coach (causing them to lose face).
Most recently, I had a discussion with Jason Dixon about this. Jason is an American basketball player who came to play in the Chinese Basketball Association about a decade ago. He went on to become one of the top players in the sport here, and after retiring (and becoming assistant coach of the team he'd been playing for) became only the second player in China's history to have their number retired by their team (Yao Ming was the first). He's famous in China, and led his team to several national championships.
When I asked him about this, he agreed absolutely. All across China, foreign players (each team is allowed to import a few foreign players) are the top players on their teams. Why? Because they're not afraid to play as individuals. They don't care about the 'face' of their teammates, they care about winning games.
It probably helps that most of these foreign players don't mix much with the local Chinese players. They are housed separately, go out separately...they are together only when practicing or playing. So they just don't care that much when their Chinese teammates ostracize or criticize them.
Jason knows all the Chinese players who've had the chance to play on American teams, and he said that every one of them feels more comfortable and free to perform to their best ability when overseas...and that there is often a noticeable slump in their performance when they return to play for a Chinese team. One of the main reasons for this is that they feel pressure not to make the rest of their Chinese teammates lose face by playing too well.
Individual or pairs sports don't suffer from this problem; competitors in such sports have the freedom to excel, to do their best.
I've found this an interesting analogy for business. There's very much the same attitude. Teams tend to work together very well, so long as everyone on the team performs equally. If someone is performing poorly, the others on the team will put significant pressure on them to improve; in this way, the collectivist system can be beneficial.
But when someone on the team excels, it causes friction and discord. Not only fellow team members, but even the team leader, may feel that this overachiever is making them lose face. And they'll face significant pressure from all sides to stop making the rest of them look bad.
via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=262972&goto=newpost
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