Why don’t we have interviews and talk shows about our sporting heroes? Watching this clip makes me feel for them even more. Before going into the details of the clip, I wish to correct the impression of the people who feels Li Jia Wei proved herself as non-Singapore. This is what Li Jia Wei said in the interview

希望在 2008, 我自己又是一个北京人, 又是个中国人, 我希望能在自己的本土, 自己的地盘, 能够得到一枚奖牌.

I wish that in 2008, I am a person from Beijing, I am a Chinese, I wish I can in my home ground, in my territory, that I can achieve a medal.

Is this sentence really that offensive? Is it not a fact that she was born in Beijing, China?

Have you not heard a similar conversation in your everyday life before?

“Eh, you Chinese?”

“Yah. Wa si hokkien lang eh” (Yah, I am Hokkien)

Would you consider the above sentence as unpatriotic? Would you consider someone stating their place of origin as unpatriotic? One would have to note that the Chinese language does not make a distinction between “ethnicity” and nationality. For example, when we say 我是福建人 – Wo shi fu jian ren – in English, it literally means “I am a Hokkien/ Fu Jian person”, which means both that I was born in Fu Jian or that I was descended from Fu Jian people.

So when Li Jia Wei said “I am a Beijing person, I am a Chinese”, it is no more nor less than someone saying “I am Chinese, I am Hokkien” as 70% of Singaporean are Chinese and majority of them are Hokkien. When people claim that Li Jia Wei is actually saying “I am not a Singaporean” you have to stop and wonder how many Singaporeans you know, go around saying “I am Singaporean! I am Singaporean!” They are putting words into Li Jia Wei’s mouth by omission, by what she didn’t say. In fact, most of these Singaporeans are only trumpeting their “Singaporean-ess” now, in order to contrasts themselves with Li Jia Wei who was not born in Singapore.

In Li Jia Wei’s case, she was making a point that since she hails from Beijing, China, she wishes to make a mark now that she has an opportunity to play in the world stage hosted by the country she was born in, in the city she was born in. Perhaps some of you would feel that I am missing the point. Perhaps some of you hold Li Jia Wei to such “high standards” as to forget her homeland once she becomes a Singaporean. We are Chinese. You shouldn’t 忘本 “forget your roots”.

Singapore consists of four main ethnic groups – Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasians. We expect the people from different backgrounds and different ethnicity to work together to build a better society. What we don’t expect them to do, however, is to throw away their ethnicity and forget their values.

Let’s go into details of the clip.

Li Jia Wei 李佳薇

Her father was a table tennis coach. When Li Jia Wei was a child, he was very strict with her and would scold and hit her. Even when she injured herself while playing, her father did not cut her any slack when it came to training table tennis. As the saying goes, 严师出高徒 “strict teacher produces good disciples”. Li Jia Wei even admitted that she hated her father growing up. But it was when she came Singapore, 离乡背井, that she finally felt her father’s love for her. He told her that if she buey tahan in Singapore, she can come home.

Feng Tian Wei 冯天薇

She was from a humble family in Ha er bin 哈尔滨, it’s somewhere in China which I have no idea where actually. She was training in table tennis when her father suddenly became ill. Her mother only earned RMB100 a month and it was not enough to support the family. Her mother had to change her job, travel to her new job 2 hours away from where they lived, for RMB300 more. To put it in perspective, her family earned approximately SGD$160 a month. That was just 6 years ago. Feng Tian Wei’s coaches told mother to 咬紧牙根 and continue to send her for table tennis training as she is talented. Feng Tian Wei’s mom’s preserverence really touched my heart… 慈母手中线, 游子身上衣.

Now, Mediacorp should show Singaporeans a more human side to Li Jia Wei and Feng Tian Wei.. by showing us their lives, their struggles, their gratitude for Singapore and how different or similar they are to the average Singaporean.

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We see her again this year at Beijing 2008 attempting for a medal in the table tennis women’s single. Will she make it?

Remember to catch the show tonight 7.30pm Channel 5. I’ll be stuck in the office, but I’ll be cheering for her. JIA YOU!!!! LI JIA WEI!!!

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