英语阅读：Embracing a wrong interpretation
Last Sunday night at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, amongall the celebrations, Yao Ming was seen hugging a female athlete.
I blurted out: "China's online sleuths are going to flush out the identity
of this woman, and she's going to create a big wave in China."
A big-time blogger happened to be near me, and he posted my remarks in his
blog. Now, we all know that woman was Lauren Jackson, an Australian basketball
player who is currently with the Seattle Storm of the WNBA and the Australian
National Team, The Opals.
I don't know why I said what I said, but I guess I had a hunch about this
kind of thing - the misinterpretation of cultural incidents. What appeared to be
a token of friendliness between two acquaintances or friends has triggered a
spate of tall tales.
Soon after the embrace in the Bird's Nest, reports emerged claiming that
Lauren Jackson, or LJ, is much more than a friend of Yao's. Obviously she
initiated the hug, and Yao reciprocated with slight hesitation. From this, the
legion of Chinese Sherlock Holmes have concluded that LJ used to have a fling
with Yao, but Yao, faithful to his wife, Ye Li, turned her down.
I don't know how much truth there is in that. But it doesn't seem to be
corroborated by the people involved. That, however, doesn't prevent the hug from
being the runaway fun story from an otherwise predictable sporting event.
If you don't believe what I've said, here's the final proof - a rewritten
lyric set to the tune of the Beijing Olympics theme song:
Yao Ming: (helplessly) Me and Li / Heart to heart / Have got marriage
license / Stop dreaming / Don't carry on / For I'll be faithful. / Go away,
Lauren / Let go of my hand / You and me / Are impossible / Go find someone
else.
LJ: (joyfully) Yao near me / And hugged me / Won't part with me. / Winds
may blow / Blow them apart / And he'll hug me alone. / Come on, Big Yao / Give
me your hand.
Chorus: Yao near me / And hugged me / Dazed over me / You love me / And
hugged me / Now in dream of me.
An audio version is floating in cyberspace, with uncanny mimicry of the
original singers Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman.
You may laugh at such a childish act of mischievousness. But actually it's
not that simple. Chinese etiquette does not include hugging in public, and even
though we've seen it countless times in movies most of us do not know when it is
appropriate to hug, especially a non-family member of the opposite sex.
Two decades ago, I was seeing off a group of visitors at the airport after
escorting them for weeks on a tour across China. The women hugged me one by one,
or rather, the first woman hugged me, and then I started hugging the others. It
happened that the last person in the group was an old gentleman. As soon as I
opened my arms, one of the women hinted that I stop. I instantly realized what
she meant, but I did not understand. I've seen movies from Eastern Europe in
which adult men hugged each other. The nuances were just too complicated for a
kid fresh out of college.
Today, hugging is quite common in China, especially among the young, but
old mindsets die hard. Even if you conduct yourself properly, as Yao Ming and LJ
did, people will misunderstand you, deliberately or not, because the same act
has different connotations in different cultures.
Wait for a Yao-Ye-LJ melodrama like a soap opera fit for primetime. What
netizens can cook up will be infinitely more colorful than anything on TV.
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