The word 'Simi' in Hokkien means 'What' in English language. Enough is enough. Like many of you with conscience, we see red when we see cyber bullying online especially those xenophobic sentiments against our China-born Singapore Citizen national paddlers. Ever since Feng Tianwei's bronze medal win at the London Olympics, some people has gone too far with some creating a fake photo [
shown far below] to stir hate while some would go to the extend of spreading rumor that Singapore '
Buy Medal' or some lousy blog saying that we choose '
Imported Success' over '
Home grown'. Some polls are even conducted against Feng Tianwei with some tricky questions to direct poll-takers to their stand. Oh please, if you cannot say anything nice or know anything about sport, might as well do us the favor and keep your mouth sealed & fingers crossed away from the keyboard! Or admit it if you are just finding fault with somebody because he/ she is a foreigner by birth.
What is your definition of '
Buy Medal'? If Singapore can buy medals so easily, we would have a truckloads of medals from London Olympics already since most of you have been echoing that our million dollar ministers are so rich. Do we need to wait 52 years?
Our London Olympic 2012 Bronze medal is not bought, instead it is '
EARNED' by Feng Tianwei. Feng left China in 2005 to play in the Japanese professional league. She was talent spotted by Liu Guodong, then a coach with the
Singapore Table Tennis Association, in 2006. In March 2007 she was
invited to train in Singapore under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme.
She became a Singapore citizen in January
2008. That period her world ranking level is 73rd at the age of 22. STTA groomed & trained her
well the past few years & now she won the bronze medal for us, ending
the 52 years Olympic jinx wait. Her ranking is now at 8th at age of 26 yrs old. Hope some people can do some
serious research. I have provided two links below.
Sources: Wikipedia and
ITTF World Ranking (click Women)
For the controversy on 'import talent' & 'home grown' talent, one netizen who read from some NOT-Up-To-Date blog online has asked
Ms. Lee Bee Wah, MP and President of STTA. She has replied below:-
"
Lee Bee Wah to Jason Lee:
Certainly we have not given up.....otherwise, why did we start the PCF
table tennis program in 2009 for 6-year old kids? Why did STTA fought so
hard for Isabelle and Xuejie to represent Singapore in SEA Games? Why
did STTA introduce Crocodile Challenge Cup just for Singaporeans?"
Source: Here (
Lee Bee Wah FB Page) and
Here (
Yahoo news, Nov 17, 2011 title: Results Speaks For Themselves: Lee Bee Wah)
Extracted from Yahoo: "Speaking to reporters in Jakarta after a five gold, four silver medal
sweep in the SEA Games table tennis competition on Wednesday night, a
triumphant STTA president Lee Bee Wah was unable to hide her delight at the success of the Singapore paddlers, in particular highlighting young homegrown players Isabelle Li and Pang Xue Jie, whom she fought hard to keep in her initial SEA Games lineup."
Now view the photos below & see if you can accept these kind of behavior online.
(
Photo below courtesy of EDMW loves Singapore: This photo has been floating around on the
internet. We can confirm that it is a Photoshopped job. Just took at the
edges of the two highlighted boxes which indicate the players'
nationality. Whoever Photoshopped this is bent on stirring anger and
from untruths and trying not hard enough)
(
Photo below showing the 'tricky' online polls questions)
Comments from readers about these polls above:
Sg Watcher: "The
question is already suggestive and wrong in the first place -
highlighting the place of birth rather than the country the sportswoman
represent belies the intent. What is there to answer?"
Troy Parry: "This
is like going to a Christian church and asking "which religion do you
believe in" (obviously most or all will say Christian). Of course all
the haters are going to say Poland, because TR is all about hatred :)"
Leonie Tan: "must have been the Polish people voting on TR :)"
Andre Tan: "Good
ole fashioned fear driven sentiments, fanned by a warped political
agenda methinks. Democratic process consuming itself with free speech
... like watching a snake try to eat its own tail ..."
To put to the end of my blog, I would like to highlight the latest article from
SPH Mr Terrence Voon, Sports Correspondent In London. Read the part on Ms. Feng Tianwei, imagine the process she has to go through. This article will put those who did cyber bullying on her to shame!
The grit and grind behind that bronze:- Perfectionist Feng Tianwei is driven by a crushing work ethic (Aug 05, 2012).
By Terrence Voon Sports Correspondent In London
In table tennis, they call her a woman who plays like a man.
In private, Feng Tianwei is a girl, a child-like soul who loves pop
music, fast cars, make-up and an extra helping of chocolate and chilli
crab. She is also a perfectionist, a workaholic with a bat, an athlete
powered by tragedy, rejection and the fear of failure.
Before
her Olympic bronze- medal match against Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa last
Wednesday, she asked her coaches: "What happens if I lose? Will my
country blame me?"
Loy Soo Han, Singapore's table tennis technical chief, told her to perish the thought.
"Tianwei has the weight of the world on her shoulders," he said. "It's our job to keep her focused and calm."
It was hard to tell, from the way she demolished Ishikawa and
Singapore's 52-year individual Olympic medal jinx, that Feng was
jittery. Her fragile state of mind was such that officials and teammates
took care not to talk about the medal drought, or the fact that
Singapore's last three Olympic bronze medal play-offs had ended in
disappointment.
To understand how Feng thinks, one needs to understand where she came from.
Home was Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in north-east
China. Known for its long, icy winters, this was where Feng, 25, learnt
her trade as a young girl, sparring daily against bigger and stronger
boys in a gym minutes away from home. This was also where she first
honed her looping forehand smash, a powerful killing stroke that has
been described as "masculine" by those who have coached her.
"Her technique is very advanced... comparable to the top players from China," said Loy.
The irony is that she was never quite good enough - for China.
In 2003, a year after winning China's national youth title, she was
called up for the national squad. Two years of brutal training followed,
during which Feng was constantly overlooked for major competitions
because she was deemed to be mentally weak.
She knew her
chances of breaking into the Chinese 'A' team were slim, and left for
Japan in 2005 to make a living in their professional league.
By this point, she had already lost her father.
Mr Feng Qingzhi, a granary worker, died of multiple sclerosis in 2002,
weeks before his only child was due to try out for the Chinese national
team. Feng aced the try-outs. But it took years to cope with her
father's death.
Mr Feng, along with his wife Liu Chunping, a
department store worker, had saved and struggled for years to pay for
their child's table tennis lessons.
Feng said in a 2010
interview: "I feel when I get the results, he will be able to feel it
from where he is, because he's done so much for me."
Another
life-changing moment came in 2006, when Singapore officials -
then-national head coach Liu Guodong and former table tennis chief Choo
Wee Khiang - saw her in action in Japan. Impressed by her skill and
potential, they made her an offer: Come to Singapore, where we will
train you, house you and give you a chance to play at the Olympics.
Feng agreed, and was given citizenship a year later - just in time to
qualify for the 2008 Olympics, alongside Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu.
At the Beijing Games, her performances led the team to a silver, the Republic's first medal since 1960.
Feng built on that success, rising to No. 2 in the world standings in
2010, the year she led Singapore to a sensational World Team
Championships triumph over China.
She was at the peak of her powers, but it came at a cost.
Of the 12 months in a year, 10 were spent outside of Singapore
competing. There was even less time to visit her mother in Harbin, or to
indulge herself.
"She's no different from other women," said
deputy women's head coach Jing Junhong, who described her charge as
"guileless" and "adorable".
"She wants to be pretty, she wants
to wear make-up, she wants to relax. She's a child-like woman who loves
to laugh and have fun. But because of her schedule, she has no time to
do all these things."
Listening to Mandarin pop songs is Feng's
escape from the stress of competition, and watching Formula One races
on television is her idea of relaxing.
By all accounts, Feng -
who guards her personal life fiercely - is single. Her crushing work
ethic might have something to do this.
"She's always the last
to leave the training hall," said Loy. "Even at night, when she is
supposed to rest, she will sometimes find a sparring partner just so she
can train more."
No one is harder on Feng than herself. In her
mind, she is still flawed. She turns 26 this month, and she knows her
place on the top rungs of world table tennis will slip with age.
"She seeks perfection in everything that she does," said Jing - Feng's
maternal figure in the Singapore team. Better than anyone else, she
knows how the paddler must feel. It was Jing who missed out on a bronze
12 years ago at the Sydney Games. And it is she who keeps reminding Feng
- who endured a bad run of results before the Olympics - to take it
easy even when she is not playing well.
"It's good to be a
perfectionist in some situations, but she has to understand that no
player can be perfect during a match," said Jing. "She has to learn to
succeed even when conditions are imperfect."
After winning the
bronze last Wednesday, Feng spent 45 minutes outside the arena posing
for photographs with fans, VIPs and even a lone British soldier who was
smitten by her performance.
"I want to win another medal for Singapore in the team event," she said then. "That's why I need to train even harder now."
In Feng's world, her work is never done.
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Little Fish note:
Dear readers, if you would like to Speak Up Against Xenophobia in Singapore to stop all the anti-foreigners nonsense that has been circulating on cyberspace, please visit & 'LIKE' my Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Speak-Up-Against-Xenophobia-in-Singapore/349773545082229?ref=hl
Stay tuned to ANOTHER BLOG COMING UP SOON.. on my Facebook Page!
