i have been enjoying the extremely passive aggressive tone of the american commentators about the chinese gymnasts. i haven't experienced so much thinly-veiled judgment since i told my family that i was moving across the country to live with a man i'd only spent 3 days with.
examples:
on screen, a chinese woman approaches the vault.
commentator 1: tell us about this gymnast.
commentator 2: oh this young lady is 20 years old, one of the older members of the team. when she was 3 years old, she was taken away from her family to train. she was only allowed to see them a few times a year. she would beg her family to come home but they said, no, you have to stick with the program, for the good of the country.
on screen, a chinese girl approaches the uneven bars.
commentator 1: ...the coach says that she is lazy, and that she could live up to her potential if she worked harder.
commentator 2: how is it possible that any member of the chinese gymnastics team isn't working hard?
commentator 1: that is just what her judge said, i don't know.
on screen, a girl who looks like she is 12 or 13 is about to get on the balance beam.
commentator: i will leave it to you to decided if she is quote unquote sixteen as her passport claims she is. she certainly does not look 16 to us.
this just scratches the surface of their commentary. it's kind of amazing.
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