图，在8月10 号中国对比利时的足球赛后一个失望的观众。
纽约时报报导，中宣传部已下令国内主要新闻机构立即停止对中国男足在奥运会中
作为的评论，两个中国记者在采访时说。
虽然足球是中国最受欢迎的运动，球迷们不断对中国男队的令人沮丧的表现感到失
望。多年来，中国的新闻媒体-包括记者，国家通讯社，中央电视台，主要的电视网
络-加入了人们对男子足球队的抨击。
但，在中国队于8月13日以3:0失去了最后一场对巴西的比赛 后，中宣部显然厌倦了
这些挑剔与笑话。某大报接到命令，停止批评男足，据一位在该报工作的记者说。
另一位中国新闻工作者周三晚间证实，政府已发出一份这样的通知。记者不愿透露
姓名，耽心政府报复。
另据国家办的英文中国日报文章，中国的金牌获得者将各获得免税奖金五点一万美
元，比2004年雅典奥运会中国金牌获得者的奖金多约二点二万美元。1984年中国第
一次参加的洛杉矶奥运会金牌获得者收到的奖金少于900美元。
香港立法会将于于9月7日举行选举，中国政府本周派出大部分的金牌得主到香港。一
些香港的政客们在担心运动员将会为亲北京的候选人助选。
China Defends Its Reviled Soccer Team
By EDWARD WONG，August 29, 2008
BEIJING ù The Olympic Games have shown that sports and national pride are
still tightly intertwined, and perhaps nowhere more so than in the minds
of Chinese leaders.
The evidence is indisputable: the more than $40 billion spent on the Games,
the record haul of 51 gold medals by Chinese athletes, the invitations to
80 world leaders to attend the opening ceremony.
Now, the government is taking a step to shore up the reputation of that
most dubious of national sports icons: the menós soccer team.
No sports team is more vilified in China, but the Central Propaganda Department
has ordered major news organizations to cease their criticism of it, two
Chinese journalists said.
Although soccer is Chinaós most popular sport, fans are continually frustrated
by the dismal performance of the menós team. For years, the Chinese news
media ù including Xinhua, the state news agency, and CCTV, the main television
network ù have joined the public in attacking the team. The players on the
menós Olympic team, some of whom also play on the national team, drew scorn
during the Beijing Games when they lost two of their preliminary matches
and mustered a mere 1-1 draw against New Zealand.
The mockery reached new heights after two Chinese players received red cards,
automatic ejections, in a match against Belgium on Aug. 10 ù one player
for kicking a player in the groin, the other (the team captain, no less)
for elbowing an opposing player.
After the Chinese team lost its final match on Aug. 13 to Brazil 3-0, the
Propaganda Department apparently got fed up with the carping and the jokes.
One major newspaper received an order to stop criticizing the menós team,
a reporter for the newspaper said. Another Chinese journalist confirmed
on Wednesday night that the government had issued a general order along
those lines.
The journalists spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing government
reprisal.
On an Internet message board, an anonymous contributor who works for a television
or radio news program said in a post dated Aug. 16 that the Central Propaganda
Department had ǒdemanded that the press not overly makes quips about or
sneer at the Chinese menós soccer team.ō
A sports reporter expressed doubt that the order would stick. ǒYou canót
stop criticism of the menós soccer team,ō he said in an interview. ǒEveryone
hates the team.ō
Scrutiny of the team inevitably raises political questions, because Chinese
fans often blame corruption in the state-run Chinese Football Association
for the teamós lackluster performance. They despise Xie Yalong, who leads
the federation. At soccer games in China, fans in stadiums often chant,
ǒXie Yalong must resign!ō
A quick look at Chinese news outlets this week showed no critical articles
about the soccer team. But while the harsh words have ebbed in the news
media, acid comments continued to pop up on prominent Web portals like Sohu.
An article in The New York Times on Aug. 15 about the derisive coverage
of the menós team has been translated and posted on several sites.
Even with the prohibition against criticism, the soccer teamós players are
painfully aware of their shortcomings. A post-game comment by Li Weifeng,
30, who was captain during the Brazil match, has been widely circulated.
ǒWe play soccer like the Brazilians play Ping-Pong,ō he said.
But even that attempt at self-deprecation was criticized ù by the table
tennis coach for the Brazilian Olympic team. ǒIn fact, Brazilian Ping-Pong
is not weak,ō the coach, Wei Jianren, a former player in China who moved
to Brazil 19 years ago, said in an interview with Xinhua. ǒBrazilian Ping-Pong
is not among the top ones in the world, but itós in the leading position
in the Latin America region.ō
During the Games, the Chinese government tried to censor domestic coverage
of other embarrassing moments for Chinese sports. When the star hurdler
Liu Xiang dropped out of competition because of an injury, the authorities
ordered Chinese news media not to criticize him or to investigate the nature
and severity of his problems.
The news media are now focusing on the triumphant aftermath of the Olympics.
An article in China Daily, the state-run English language newspaper, said
Wednesday that the countryós gold medalists would each get a tax-free bonus
of $51,000, about $22,000 more than the bonus Chinese gold medalists received
after the 2004 Athens Games. In the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the first modern
Summer Olympics in which China took part, the gold medalists received bonuses
of less than $900 each. China won 15 gold medals that year.
The Chinese government is sending most of the countryós gold medal winners
to Hong Kong this week, before legislative elections there on Sept. 7. Some
politicians in Hong Kong are worried that the athletes will campaign on
behalf of pro-Beijing candidates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/sports/olympics/29beijing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&
pagewanted=print
