When An Anti-Jingoist Watches Sports

I don't really follow sports, and when I do, I don't ever swear allegiance to any one team. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that I grew up in San Jose, CA, a city that really only has the Sharks to claim as its national sports team. (And, really, who the hell here gives a rat's ass about hockey?) I suppose there are always the San Francisco teams to get behind, and I remember the 49-er frenzy when I was a kid, back when Joe Montana was a star. But for the most part, the notion of feeling personally affiliated with a sports team, and loyally supporting it, has always been kind of foreign to me.

The funny thing is, the only sports events I ever did follow consistently were the Olympics and the World Cup, two events premised on competition between nations, and thus should inspire the most flag-waving, anthem-singing, allegiance-swearing fervor. My impulse has always been to root for the United States, because, of course, that is the country I call home. But since I was a kid, I always noticed when my parents would get excited about China's performance, and it never occurred to me that they, as American citizens, were being unpatriotic. And when it did occur to me that they weren't necessarily supporting China as a nation (for, after all, both sides of my family were kicked out of China after various revolutions generations ago, and no one has expressed any interest in returning to the homeland), I came to understand that my parents were feeling an affinity with a people and a common ancestry. One's loyalty or sense of belonging isn't always represented in terms of teams. So while my family certainly has a strong sense of home and origin, it has never been that interested in jingoism. I guess I haven't been, either.

My educational background and academic career have equipped me to intellectualize my inherent distrust of nation, and have also interfered with my watching of sports. I'm far more interested in what programs nations have in place that enable the strong performance of its athletes rather than the performances themselves. I'm always impressed when athletes from war-torn and impoverished countries manage to medal. The Beijing Olympics were particularly interesting for me, because it displayed China as a country once closed-off debut itself as a superpower. While I was certainly proud to see my ancestral nation host and compete so impressively, I was also quick to wonder how much money was going into "representing" the nation when so many of its people are dirt poor. I found it thrilling to see an Asian country give my true homeland, the big and powerful U.S., a run for its money, but I also felt fatigued by the cost of competition. In the end, rather than get caught up in the medals race between the United States and China, I found myself looking out for nations that were medaling for the first time.

So for this year's FIFA World Cup, I've been largely rooting for the underdogs. Yes, I rooted for North Korea, even if they're supposed be an evil dictatorship. I just thought it was cool that they were making it to the World Cup for the first time since 1966. Yes, I rooted for Ghana, even when they were playing the United States. I just wanted to see an African country make the final in the first World Cup to take place on the African continent. And now that we're reaching the final, I definitely don't want to see one between the Netherlands and Germany, two former colonizers of South Africa.

I suppose my cheering habits betray my politics and world-view. I'm clearly fiercely critical of colonialism (and its counterpart: globalization). I'm also an American through and through, right down to my awareness of American racial politics and the history of white supremacy in the United States, which somehow translates to an affinity with my Asian brethren and other folks of color when they manage to defy expectations that history dictates.

Obviously, I'm not much of a sports watcher.

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UDPATE: I actually got my ass up at 7 am to watch the Germany vs. Argentina game. Gotta hand it to the Germans-- They were simply way better than Argentina defensively, and knew how to position themselves in order to finish off their attempted goals. Really strong, tight team. No wonder they've been slaughtering every team they've played. See, I do pay attention to the game!