Chapter 942: Olympics and Thoughts
Beijing Airport.
Liu Tao and Zhu Lin came to the airport in person to bid farewell to their children.
Liu Jingming, 16, and Liu Yingqing, 14, will represent the Chinese national team for the first time in the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
The 1996 Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, the United States, and this Olympic Games is also the centenary of the modern Olympic Games. The time for this Olympic Games is from July 19 to August 4.
The Chinese sports delegation, consisting of more than 700 people, will participate in 24 of the 26 major events and 224 minor events of the 26th Olympic Games.
Since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the number of Chinese sports delegations has been increasing in each session, the number of games they have participated in has also increased, and their strength has also been improving at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In each Olympic Games, the Chinese delegation has been facing increasingly fierce competition and more and more powerful opponents. The total number of gold medals and the total number of medals have been increasing, and they have also created Olympic records and world records, which also reflects the rapid rise of China's comprehensive national strength.
Modern international competitive sports are actually essentially a competition of national strength among countries.
Just like now, the Chinese delegation can leave for Atlanta two months in advance to adapt to the environment and train in Atlanta. You know, going to Atlanta two months in advance and training in Atlanta means burning money.
This was unthinkable more than a decade ago.
The Chinese delegation chartered a plane to the United States. Everyone's clothes and other things are very different from more than a decade ago.
Liu Jingming and Liu Yingqing will participate in the 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly, 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter freestyle, and mixed 4×100-meter medley.
Liu Yingqing, 14 years old, became the youngest in this Chinese delegation.
This delegation is full of talents and has athletes.
The national table tennis team has the twin stars Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang. At this time, Kong Linghui was only 21 years old and handsome, and Liu Guoliang was only 20 years old and already had a bad temper. Deng Yaping of the women's team has been full of honors since she joined the national team in 1988. She was the absolute main force of the Chinese team in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, winning two gold medals in women's singles and doubles, and is now the world's number one female table tennis player.
The diving team has Fu Mingxia, who shocked the world with her amazing jump in Barcelona in 1992 and won the Olympic women's 10-meter diving platform gold medal, becoming the youngest champion in Olympic history and famous all over the world. In the IOC promotional film of the Olympic Games, her amazing jump in Barcelona must be included. She has amazing dominance in the 10-meter diving platform and 3-meter board, and is now the absolute trump card of the Chinese diving team.
In the gymnastics team, Li Xiaoshuang is an absolute star and an absolute trump card. At the 11th Asian Games in Beijing in 1990, he won the team and floor exercise gold medals in one fell swoop, and has since become famous. At the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, he won the floor exercise championship and became the leader of the Chinese men's gymnastics team. In 1995, she won the individual all-around championship at the World Championships, becoming the first Chinese athlete to win the individual all-around gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championships.
There is also the star figure of the women's gymnastics team, 'Liu Xuan', who won the uneven bars championship at the National Gymnastics Championships in 1992 and is now known as 'Xuan Beauty'.
In addition to more than 450 athletes, there are more than 100 coaches, 27 team leaders, 39 doctors, 33 translators, and 6 sparring partners.
Liu Tao has never thought about what kind of results Liu Jingming and Liu Yingqing can achieve. As a parent, he just hopes that the two of them are healthy and happy.
After watching the children get on the plane, the two left.
Back in the courtyard, Liu Tao read the newspaper.
The front-page news of the newspaper is an article by Sheng Hong, a doctoral student in economics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, titled "What is Civilization", which clearly states: Chinese civilization is superior to Western civilization!
Before the mid-1980s, China was in the era of 'reverse nationalism', where everything in the West was good and everything in China was bad. When encountering some bad things, they will definitely say: "This situation will never happen in Western countries, China is too bad!"
After the reform and opening up, the economy developed rapidly, and China's comprehensive national strength grew rapidly. Liu Tao's article "The Future Belongs to China" seemed to blow the horn, and "nationalism" slowly rose.
Chinese people no longer look up to Europe and the United States, but began to think and compare. In addition, more and more people went abroad to study and do business, and more news about Europe and the United States appeared in the news. Many scholars who went to Europe and the United States would write articles involuntarily, so that everyone could learn more about Europe and the United States.
After ten years of development, "nationalism" can be said to be high.
"What is Civilization" was written by Dr. Sheng Hong a year after his visit to the United States. He saw the real situation of Western countries, and once this article was published, it immediately triggered a great discussion in the academic community.
Many public intellectuals were furious and bombarded Sheng Hong.
If this is the case, how can they still promote that set of things, how can they still fool people? How can they still get money?
They said before that the Germans did not build image projects during their occupation of Qingdao, leaving the Chinese with a Qingdao that never flooded a hundred years later. After more than a hundred years, some interface parts of the sewers in the former German concession needed to be replaced. According to a phone call from a German company, the Chinese found a small warehouse with complete spare parts. What determines the spirit, code of conduct and behavioral norms of a nation? The answer is really worth our deep thought!
They also said that New York has the largest sewer system in the United States, with miles and miles of pipelines and dozens of sewage treatment plants that process billions of gallons of sewage every day.
They even said that Japanese toilets are extremely clean and the water in the toilets can be drank directly as drinking water.
But now, one article after another, they have been questioned. Now Sheng Hong's "What is Civilization" openly states that "Chinese civilization is superior to Western civilization"!
What is even more disgusting is the article "God Is Not in a Foreign Country" by the writer Zhang Chengzhi. He said that he went abroad with a pilgrim mentality before writing this article. Several sentences in the article are like this: You once set out You had a fantasy before, and you really wanted to find it and make it the support of your life. Your dream failed. Just as you guessed that their dreams didn't exist at all, your pursuit of their dreams hit the wall hard!
This article caused widespread discussion throughout Chinese society. Many foreigners with broken dreams cursed and cursed Zhang Chengzhi crazily. More and more Chinese people recognized the reality after reading the article - it turns out that foreign countries are not necessarily better than domestic ones. .
Liu Tao looked at the newspaper and smiled softly. This trend came earlier and more violently than he expected, but he took it for granted.
After all, I am afraid of comparison in everything. As long as you really compare, you will find that not only is your home not bad, it is actually quite excellent. When you count the achievements China has made and the road it has traveled, you will realize that it turns out that China is so awesome.