Sports, Spectators, and Expectoration

Overnight, the sports hall above TKD was taken up by a dozen or so ping-pong tables. I don't know what the tournament was in aid of, but middle-aged to positively pensionable men of all sizes and shapes were represented.

From looking at the physique and dress of some of the players, it was clearly an amateur competition, yet the quality of play was far above anything I'd ever seen back home.

The ball blurred into a white streak as paddles whipped back and forth impossibly fast. At times it seemed that the players were responding even before the ball was returned in some sort of supernatural telepathic duel. Even more entertaining was the behaviour of the crowds. They chatted away loudly, offering commentary on particularly good or bad plays; heckled their friends' opponents; chain-smoked and snacked on seeds; and noisily hocked thick balls of phlegm onto the arena floor. All this while standing mere feet away from the action.

It seems quite popular to dismiss a range of etiquette ailments (e.g. not knocking, nose-picking) as being a 素质问题 (a quality [of people] question or issue), especially when it comes to matters of (to this laowai) unusual behaviour. The insinuation is that with just a touch more education, a slightly better upbringing, this kind of social faux pas would disappear. As expected, when I suggested to a couple of people that that the audience behaviour was a cultural difference, the immediate reply was that it was a 素质问题.

I suspect it's a bit of both. All I can say for sure is that if middle-aged amateur Chinese players can perform like this with that level of distraction, it's no wonder that China dominates the world in this sport.