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Yao Ming's Journey

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by jxu777, Feb 8, 2003.

  1. jxu777

    jxu777 Contributing Member

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    http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2003-01-06/0125375180.shtml

    Found a very good series on Yao Ming. I'll try to translate it into English piece by piece. Forgive my English translation skill. You are welcome to relay in the translation of this series.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Yao Ming’s Journey

    By Xao Chun Fei, staff reporter of Xin Hua News Agency

    Preface

    Yao Ming is a pride of the Chinese, a giant sign of success and fortune and an ambassador of China in the world community. How has the “little Giant” succeeded? By looking at the course of his growth, his success is attributed to his talent and diligence, the progress of the reform in the Chinese sports, and in general, the reform and opening up of China. From Feb. 5th, we will publish “Yao Ming’s Journey”, a series of articles to share with you the happiness in Yao Ming’s journey toward the world stage.

    Chapter One: The Forever Number 15

    At 7:20 pm on Jan. 5th, 2003, a giant jersey is hanging at the top of the basketball court at the Lu Wan Stadium. (Edit: I used to play and perform several times in this stadium way before the CBA got started. It once was the “Shanghai Stadium”, the only stadium for indoor sports in Shanghai.) From now on, the Number 15 will always belong to one name, Yao Ming.

    Yao Ming always had the No. 15 jersey at the Shanghai Orient. (Edit: the official name of the club is “Shanghai Orient Sharks”.) Whenever “Number 15, Yao Ming” was introduced, a roar erupted from the audience and lasted to blanket the rest of the introduction.

    Now that Yao Ming has gone, the No. 15 was retired forever in the Orient as a tribute and recognition of Yao Ming. During those six tough years, the Orient fought from division B to the champion of CBA. (Edit: traditionally, a team sport like basketball in China was divided into division A, B and C. Many A divisions now have been converted to professional leagues, like CBA in basketball). It was this process in which Yao Ming had grown into a great basketball player.

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    Gotta take a break for the little ones. Will be right back to continue the chapter one.
     
  2. jxu777

    jxu777 Contributing Member

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    (To continue Chapter One)
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    It’s not uncommon that a jersey is retired in the world sports. But this is the first time in China. Therefore, Yao Ming becomes the first athlete in China’s sports history who is honored to have his jersey retired. Number 15 will forever be at the top of home of the Shanghai Orient.

    With the roaring countdown by the audience, “5,4,3,2,1”, Li Qiu Ping, the head coach, and Liu Wei, a teammate and friend of Yao, unveiled the retired jersey. This 3 meter long and 1.98 meter wide jersey, is a 10-time enlarged replicate of Yao Ming’s original jersey. It bears a CBA championship gold star and an Orient Sharks emblem in the front. On the back is the number “15” and “Yao Ming”, and a signature by Yao Ming. The characters of “Yao Ming” are as high as ½ meter. If there was a label for the jersey, it might have numerous ‘X’ before ‘L’ in it.

    After this jersey was made, it was sent to Yao Ming in the US for his signature via express mail. In Yao Ming’s recorded video played at the ceremony, Yao Ming was very moved and said, “This is a very important event for me. I very appreciate the care and love of the Shanghai fans.”

    Coach Li Qiu Ping, who proposed this idea of retiring Yao Ming’s jersey, said, “I don’t know how many years will there be another player like Yao Ming. There is no substitute for Yao Ming in the Orient. So last year, I decided to retire his jersey for a rest.”

    Liu Wei, the friend of Yao Ming said, “This is an honor and a recognition of Yao Ming. Coach Li’s decision also serves as a motivation to all players. The retirement of No. 15 marks the end of Yao Ming Era in the Orient. Will have to find other means to win games from now on. As a professional player, this is the highest honor. I am really happy for Yao Ming.”

    Yao Zhi Yuan, Yao Ming’s father, also wear No. 15 when he played for the Team Shanghai. (Edit: The Team Shanghai was the Shanghai Orient Sharks before CBA was commissioned as a pro league. We can say Yao fathe & son played for the same team in different times) When Yao’s father knew the decision at the end of last year, he was excited and said, “It was sad that Yao Ming will never be able to wear No. 15 for The Team Shanghai again.”

    When you mention jersey, fans will remember Jordan’s “23” first. With the backing of 1.3 billion fans, who can say Yao Ming will never be like Mike in basketball achievements.

    At this moment, many people really feel the absence of Yao Ming. Many people also appreciate the roller-coaster growth of Yao Ming. And many people pray for Yao Ming in a far away America.

    Yao Ming’s journaey. One chapter just ended. A new chapter has just begun.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (End of Chapter One)
     
  3. zenithnadir

    zenithnadir Member

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    good job! thanks a lot.

    Next time the journal comes out and someone translates, they should put it in this thread to keep it alive, even if it is a week or more later. This way we can have continuity.
     
  4. jxu777

    jxu777 Contributing Member

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    [​IMG]
    Three year old Yao Ming with his childhood friends. By Wang Liang Zuo.


    Chapter Two: A Happy Kid

    There may be a day when Yao Ming is too old to walk and remember the place, 95 Kong Ping Road, where a bunch of little kids were playing and Yao Ming was smiling. (Edit: Kong Ping Road is a very nice neighborhood in Shanghai, with a lot of early 20th century French style villas).

    Yao Ming’s simple and happy life as a kid was witnessed by a long and narrow hall way in today’s standard. This hall way is a testimony of living space shortage people of Shanghai experienced in early 80’s. That is a six story apartment. Each floor has six suites with 1½ rooms (Edit: equivalent to an economy in a typical Dallas apartment). Each suite has a large room with 12 square meters (about 120 square feet) and a small room with 6 square meters. But the suite 602 looks different from other suites. It doesn’t have a door frame. People in this suite are too tall to have it. Otherwise, they will bump their heads with the door frame.

    The man in this suite, Yao Zhi Yuan, is 2.08 meter tall. His wife, Fang Feng Di, is 1.88 meter tall. The couple were all basket players, known as “the first (basketball) couple in Asia”. Yao Zhi Yuan was playing for the Team Shanghai. Fang Feng Di was famous as the captain of the China Women’s Basketball Team in 70’s.

    When their son, Yao Ming was born, he weighted almost 10 jin (Edit: about 11 pounds). It took Fang Feng Di some very hard labor to give berth to Yao Ming. That was Spet. 12th, 1980.

    Yao Zhi Yuan recalled that Ming’s height was not much different from an ordinary kid at first. “He was a little taller”, said Yao Zhi Yuan, “but not that much.” In a photo in 1983, Yao was lined up with some kids behind a bed. Ming appeared to be big, not as slim as he looked as slim as he was growing later on.

    The tenets of the whole building were all staff of the Shanghai Sports Authority. Among them were Wang Liang Zuo, the head coach of the China National Tennis Team, and Sheng Fu Ling, the head coach of the Shanghai Men’s Volleyball (Edit: Sheng was once the best “position 2” in men’s volleyball in the world during 80’s). That long and narrow hall way became the play ground of the kids in the building, due to small living space.

    Among those kids were Yao Ming, Zhang Chong, Wang Jia Yin, Sun Yi and Sun Jia Chuan. Zhang Chong was the eldest and behaved like a boy. Ming was the 2nd eldest, shy like a little girl. When they were playing poker, Ming’s face was often covered by paper strips because other kids conspired to trick him. Ming was just calm and smiling about it, even he knew they tricked him.

    Even when Zhang Chong beat him, Ming didn’t argue nor fighted back. He just told Chong’s father: “Zhang Chong beat me again.” Chong’s father would respond: “If she beat you once, you should return twice as much.” “I can’t”, Ming would said, “My mom told me that I can not beat anybody.”

    Wang Jia Yin keeps a tape today, which records Ming singing a song with his childish voice at that time. That was recorded when she was having her 4th birthday party. Ming, one year older, sang that song that he learned in kindergarten. He was singing in a broken tune, on and off and on and off. People were laughing out loud, but Ming kept singing his song. “What a nice and well behaved kid”, concluded Jing Qing Xiang, Wang Jia Yi’s grandpa. Whenever Jing visited his granddaughter, Ming would always said “hello, grandpa” to him. Then Jing would ask Ming to their suite.

    Once, Ming went to Wang Jia Yin’s home, while her grandmother, Wang Jiu Mei, was giving Ming something to eat. Ming politely said “no, thanks grandma”. “I really would like you to taste it”, insisted Wang Jiu Mei, “ you must try it.”

    However, Ming turned back to home, “I have to ask my mom if she allows”.

    Now, whenever Yao Ming is mentioned, Wang Jiu Mei praises Ming’s parent. “Big Fang and Big Yao have done a good job bringing Ming up”. She said the couple worked really hard to teach Ming to behave. Because of that, Yao Ming is a good man without bad habits. Ming is humble even though he comes a super star. “Ming is not wagging his tail” (Edit: wagging tail means becoming arrogant as a Chinese idiom)
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    (End of Chapter Two)
     
  5. jxu777

    jxu777 Contributing Member

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    Chapter Three: The Dream of Honor

    With the national anthem, the flag was being raised in the elementary school. Nobody noticed Yao Ming, an elementary student, was standing at the last row of the gathering, looking at the flag raisers (?) with envy.

    On Oct. 19th, 2002, one day before left for the NBA, Yao Ming came back to his alma meta, Gao An Road Elementary School. He revealed his dream as an elementary student to his teachers, “My dream in the elementary school was to be honored as a flag raiser.”

    “Honored Flag Raiser” was an honor to the students with exceptional grades and good characters at the Gao An Road Elementary School. To this date, Yao Ming still regrets that he was not given that honor.

    “Yao Ming was a good student. He had good grades and behaved well. He was a shy student without a high profile. He didn’t have the desire to showcase himself. So he didn’t have much attention of the teachers”, said Ni Jing, Yao Ming’s 4th grade teacher.

    Yao Ming was already at 1.70 meter tall at the 3rd grade. When parents came to school to pickup their kids, Yao Ming’s father would peek through the window above the door, unlike other parents who were peeking through the normal windows. As long as some head appeared in that window above the door, teacher Ni Jin would said, “Yao Ming, your dad is here. You can go home now.”

    However, height was not what impressed Ni Jin the most by Yao Ming. It was his modesty. “Every sprint break when we went to a field trip, Yao always yielded seat to other students, because there were not enough seats for everyone on the bus.”

    The Gao An Road Elementary School, located on Kang Ping Road, is a well known elementary school in Shanghai. (Edit: Kong Ping Road, as incorrectly translated in the previous chapters, should be Kang Ping Road.) The school developed many famous athletes before Yao Ming. The teachers never thought of Yao Ming being a basketball super star. “He studied hard, didn’t need after-hour teaching for his classes and was disciplined, unlike some athletically talented students that were struggling with their classes”, said Ni Jin.

    Gong Ling Zheng was the desinated teacher of his class, when Yao Ming was at 1st grade. At 1.50 meter tall, she was surprised when she first saw Yao Ming. “My, this first grader is already as tall as his teacher”, said she. When Yao Ming came to say good-bye to her before leaving the country for the NBA, Gong Ling Zheng, an old lady, almost fell while looking up to see Yao Ming.

    In the eyes of Gong Ling Zheng, even today, Yao Ming is like that good kid who sit in the last row in the class. “Even though he was a big kid then, he had a good demeanor. He never assaulted smaller classmates. On the contrary, he was sometimes assaulted by those smaller kids. I told him to come to tell me if somebody did that to him.”

    Thus, teacher’s office became Yao Ming’s refuge at his 1st and 2nd grade. But after his 3rd and 4th grades, nobody was mean to Yao Ming. People found out Yao Ming was truly a nice kid, friendly to all students. Though he didn’t talk much, he was not self-isolated. And he loved to help other people. Even though teacher Gong was no longer the designated teach of his class, Yao Ming often went to her class to help her clean up, because her students were 1st or 2nd grade and too small to do any cleanup jobs.

    Yao Ming has a good memory. When he came back to the school on that day, he walked fast toward his 1st grade classroom with ease and was saying “where is my teacher”. He saw classroom was locked and was told the teacher was waiting for him at the third floor. Teach Gong Ling Zheng gave him another class there, “You should add to your weight and strength when you compete with those foreign players. When my husband and I were watching your game before, we had a hurt feeling whenever you was bumped to the ground.”

    “Yao Ming is a loving and caring person. He still remembers his teachers at his elementary school. And he is an honorable person. He still regrets he was not chosen as a flag raiser”, said Ni Jin, “Now he is going to the NBA. He will work hard in honor of Chinese.”
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    (End of Chapter Three)

    You can tell there is some awkward English translation here. It becomes difficult for me to translate in a better symantec correlations. Many times, I can only try to reflect the meanings of the original Chinese sentences. This is yet another English lesson for me :p
     
  6. Pipe

    Pipe Contributing Member

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    Fascinating story! Basketball aside, Yao is definitely a fine young man. His parents have done a great job.

    Thanks for the translation.
     
  7. Uprising

    Uprising Contributing Member

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    For the first time in like forever, the rockets are being talked about by CNN!!!!


    they are the main segment of CNN news!! Stevie and Yao. Tlkaing about how far he has come and how he is so popular with fans and other players.
     
  8. jxu777

    jxu777 Contributing Member

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    Chapter Four: The Embarrassing First Shot

    Standing at the free throw line, Yao Ming held the ball and his breath. His heart was pumping so violently, the ball in front of his chest was vibrating along with his shoulders.

    This was Yao Ming’s first attempt to shoot a basketball, when he was a first grader. This occurred in an sports event at the Go An Road Elementary School, where the students was competing in games like who was running faster and who was shooting the basketball better.

    “My students, who do you want to represent us to shoot the basketball?” Asked the teacher on the podium, while looking at Yao Ming, who sit at the last row. Without further hint, the students unanimously shouted “Yao Ming”.

    Everybody knew Yao Ming’s parents were basketball players. The teacher and the students expected Yao Ming to do well, who was already 1.50 tall at the 1st grade.

    “When my fellow students called my name,” recalled Yao Ming, “I has a very special feeling at that moment, I couldn’t put a word for it. It felt like when I won our championship later.”

    When Yao Ming was called out by the class, he was rising from his seat, with his arms straight down. He was holding his head up like a proud hero.

    This was how the first NBA draft pick years later attempted to shoot his first basket. But, he missed the bucket. The ball hit the backboard softly, fell to the ground and bounced away.

    Yao Ming was shocked, while his fellow students were stunned with their bulging eyeballs. What followed made Yao Ming feel even more embarrassed. Another little student of Yao Ming’s class shot a basketball with a very armature motion: holding the ball with both hands and swinging the ball from under body up toward the basket, the infamous “empting toilet” shot. And the ball hit the basket.

    “It was so embarrassing.” Yao Ming remembers vividly how embarrassed he was. He was really trying to win some respect for his class, though at that time, he was average in grades and didn’t talk much. He didn’t like to impress the teacher. Other than being tall, he was not impressive in any other areas.

    When Yao Ming becomes the No 1 center in basketball later, people say Yao Ming loves basketball all along and was trained by his parents in his early years. But Yao Ming, his parents, his teachers, his coaches and his fellow students all said the opposite. Yao Ming didn’t like basketball at first. He viewed basketball as just another game. What made him start to play basketball was probably because there were not “CS”, “Star War”, or “The Tri-State History” (Edit: computer games) available at that time.

    Yao Zhi Yuan, Yao Ming’s father, said Yao Ming liked toy guns like other boys. Then later, he liked reading, especially in geography. For a period of time, he was also interested in archeology and model aircrafts. “I remember once he got his paycheck from the team, and went to buy some model aircraft kit for assembly. After that, he started to like archaic games and computer games”, said his father.

    Yao Ming was trained in basketball at the Xu Hui Sports School at the age of 9. Yao Zhi Yuan occasionally play basketball with Yao Ming at the old bicycle garage in front of their apartment building. Then, Yao Ming was obviously lack of “professionalism”, because he had to buy Yao Ming some little gifts when Yao Ming hit couple of baskets. Deprecating himself later, Yao Ming said “I was bribed to start playing basketball”.

    It is interesting to know that Yao Ming was once trained to play water polo at the Xu Hui Sports School. But it didn’t last long, more like for fun. He was so tall in the pool. Whenever he stood up in the pool, he appeared to be a great egret among a stream of swimming little ducks.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (End of Chapter Four)
     
  9. jxu777

    jxu777 Contributing Member

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    Chapter Five: Fall in Love Slowly with Basketball

    Li Zhang Ming, the 47 year old basketball coach at the Xu Hui Sports School, has a photo of his basketball students. In the photo, Yao Ming was like an egret among a herd of chickens with his lips tightly closed. Noticeable was the background with an age-old building of a basketball court, with broken windows all over it. “There was a soccer field just outside the building. With a basketball court inside, no wonder those windows were broken.”

    That basketball building no longer exists. There were four basketball courts on clad, where Yao Ming started his basketball training.

    “Yao Ming started basketball training with me as early as 3rd grade”, said Li Zhang Ming. “That was 1989. Yao Ming was one grade earlier than other kids at his age.” At that time, Fang Feng Di, Yao Ming’s mother, asked Xu Wei Li, the party secretary of the sports school who was going to be Yao Ming’s coach. After she heard Xu Wei Li said it was going to be Li Zhang Ming, she happily sent Yao Ming to the sports school on next day.

    Li Zhang Ming was once sent to the countryside. (Edit: During the infamous “Cultural Revolution”, many city students were sent to countryside for “re-education”, by the decree of Chairman Mao.) After that, he went to the Shanghai Sports Teachers University in 1978, enrolled in the Department of Sports. He was a capable coach with maturity and integrity. He remembers that Yao Ming didn’t have any basketball skills when he started. Yao Ming had so-so physicality. He was out of his breadth after just running two rounds around the court.

    Yao Ming’s only advantage was his height then. He was already 1.70 meter tall at his 3rd grade. Li Zhang Ming said “A kid was considered tall if he was at 1.40 meter then.”

    Li Zhang Ming trained Yao Ming for five years. After that, Yao Ming was sent the Team Shanghai II at his 7th grade. (Edit: Team II was like a youth team or a farm team for the Team Shanghai) Li Zhang Ming spent tremendous amount of efforts in training Yao Ming. When Yao Ming’s parents were too busy to picking up Yao Ming at his grade school, Li Zhang Ming would personally went to his grade school and took him to the sports school.

    “To be honorest, Yao Ming was not very interested in playing basketball, rather just for fun”, said Li Zhang Ming, “However, Yao Ming was compliant in training. He worked hard and followed exactly what coach instructed. If I told him to practice a play for 20 times, he obliged to do his best for 20 times, unlike some kids who “cheated” on the requirements.”

    Besides being compliant, Yao Ming also was a kid with maturity. During one training session, somebody notified Li Zhang Ming that his wife just gave birth to their baby. Unlike other kids who didn’t care about the news, only Yao Ming approached Li Zhang Ming and asked “Coach Li, is boy or girl?” Then, Yao Ming was only 9 year old, but many of his training mates were older than him. Early in 2002, when Yao Ming saw Li Zhang Ming again, he said to him “How is you daughter doing”.

    Li Zhang Ming was impressed by Yao Ming’s greeting, “After 10 years, he still remembers his coach’s kid.”

    Slowly, a diligent Yao Ming started to show his basketball talent. At that time, the Xu Hui Sports School classified students into three categories for their corresponding meal stipends, which were exceptional, good and fair. Yao Ming was assigned as exceptional, which had RMB $5 per day. The fair category got only RMB $1 per day. That $5 stipend was very important for Yao Ming’s growth needs at that time. Later, the sports school along with the Shanghai Sports Authority requested more support from the National Sports Commission (Edit: A cabinet level department then) with regard to Yao Ming’s unlimited potential. An official from the commission approved $50000 for further development of Yao Ming and his training mates, after he came to see Yao Ming at the sports school. That was early 90’s, and it was a big amount of money for that purpose.

    Now, Yao Ming is winning over the NBA by his basketball talents. Li Zhang Ming has this to say: “Yao Ming is certainly tall. But he doesn’t rely on his height or body strength on the court. He is playing basketball with his mind, just like how his mother was playing basketball.”

    “A key factor to Yao Ming’s success today is that he didn’t miss each of his “athletically sensitive period” during the course of his body growth. For example, at age of 8 or 9, it is good time for training of reaction velocity and agility. It would be too late if he missed that stage. Take Yao Ming’s father as an example. He had physical talent and worked very hard. But it was very difficult for him to advance his basketball achievements because he was too late starting his basketball training.”
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    (End of Chapter Five)
     

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