All For One

11:12 pm EST August 19th, 2008 | Sports | 1 Comment

Very interesting interpretation of China’s concept of the collective via the lens of the Olympics. My guess is that the U.S. version of this would more likely focus on the athlete’s internal struggle and dialogue (and Gatorade and Nike have had ads with that theme).

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One Response to “All For One”

  1. Parthenon says:
    August 20, 2008 at 2:26 am

    There are those who would argue that following the early wars (around the time that ‘The Art of War’ was written), China’s relative ethnic and linguistic homogeny (something on the level of 80-90% of the country is Han) and reliance on riverine sources of sustenance encouraged a top-down social structure based around a very centralized authority, because it required a great deal of regional coordination and cooperation. (So from the beginning their society wasn’t really geared to glorify individualism.) From this, the theory goes, arose the Imperial structure, later replaced by Mao’s version of communism, which was sort of a shadow of the system still in the memory of the oldest Chinese still living when Mao took power.

    Striking difference, between the advertisements of a society that glorifies the individual v. one that celebrates communal achievement. It’s fair nonsense to argue that one system is naturally superior; the Chinese were raising Orange Trees on massive open sea cruisers when Europeans were trying to force their way into the Indian Ocean markets in ships the size of two-car garages.