All because of "东亚病夫"

I remembered watching 'Fist of Fury' with my dad when I was young. There was an unforgettable scene of Bruce Lee returning a 'rude gift' - a frame with words that say: "东亚病夫" to the Japanese Bushido School.

BACKGROUND
"东亚病夫" is a term used by the Japanese in the 20th century to describe the Chinese. It somewhat means 'Sick Man of Asia'. During that time, China was colonised by numerous countries and they've brought in opium and many men were weakened because of the addiction.

Anyway, when it comes to the scene of Bruce kicking the frame up, smashing it up into pieces and made two of the top Bushido students 'eat' (yes, eat) the sign, my dad suddenly went "WOOO!!!"

He stood up in the cinema and clapped... as though his ego as a Chinese man was restored by Bruce Lee. Sigh... My mum and I just stared at him, wide-eyed, trying not to look embarassed.

I think at that time, I should have said something like, "Hello ba, we're not in China anymore you know? This is Malaysia, we have hibiscus here".

Anyway, I am bringing these four words "东亚病夫" up again because of these:

Taken from the TIME ASIA MAGAZINE:

One by one, the little girls walk to the wooden blocks and extend their legs into the splits, one callused foot balancing on each block, their straining bodies hovering just above the ground.

Coach Yang Yaojun, his sweatpants hiked high over his belly, ambles over to the girls, smiles and hands the nearest one a stopwatch.

The girls, who are six and seven years old, do not smile back. Teetering on the blocks, they wait as Yang straddles each leg in turn, resting his 70-kg frame on their outstretched limbs (ouch!). No matter how tough the girls are, no matter how much resolve they have mustered, the tears come within seconds. They do not cry out, though. They just well up soundlessly & stare at the seconds ticking down on the stopwatch.

After half a minute, Yang stands up and lifts the girls off the blocks. They stagger with the first step, their oversized thigh muscles visibly twitching. By the second or third step, the tremors and the tears are gone.

When a child does this six days a week all year long, save a short holiday at Lunar New Year, there are only so many tears she can shed. (I also wanna cry already)

China's Olympic prowess, though, is hardly a reflection of a nationwide passion for sweaty competition. Unlike Americans or Australians, the vast majority of Chinese are not sporty people who tote racquets or join gyms. China's international athletic success is about nationalism; it is the physical expression of a resurgent country, a rebuttal to its history as the "Sick Man of Asia" exploited by colonialists during the waning days of the Qing dynasty.

This is the new motto of China for the 2008 Olympics "从东亚病夫，到体育强国" (loosely translated as 'From Sick Man of Asia to A Country of Strong Athletes'.

This "东亚病夫" thing is like an arrow lodged deep in the heart of China... so I can understand that they wanna 'save face' and gain back a strong reputation... Sigh, but at the expense of child abuse? I'm not sure if it's justifiable.