New Yao article featuring a CCnet'er!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/134586234_soni29.html


Ming dynasty: No. 1 draft pick Yao carries load for Rockets

By Jayda Evans
Seattle Times staff reporter

You could say the revolution started in June.

The Houston Rockets drafted Yao Ming with the No. 1 overall pick, and across the country University of Washington senior Chia-Chi Li headed to a campus basketball court. Li, a pre-law student, felt it was time to master this game with a leather ball and 10-foot hoop.

"They call me 'Mini Ming,' " said Li, who stands 6 feet 2 but had never played basketball before. "I had to learn because Yao Ming was coming to town."

As the Sonics (9-7) prepare to play the Rockets (8-6) tonight at KeyArena, the majority of the expected sellout crowd will be focused on one player — Yao.

And the attention isn't solely because of his 7-5 height.

The Sonics have sold more than 300 tickets to two different Asian American groups that are attending the game just to see the Chinese star play. For them, Yao is more than a versatile force who could change the way centers play the game once he's acclimated to the NBA. He's the aptly named "Little Giant" who's strong enough to break through stereotypes that have been placed on Asian Americans for centuries.

"We haven't had many sports role models," said Li, who was born in Taiwan but raised in the Pacific Northwest. "(Tennis player) Michael Chang was about it, and I didn't like tennis.

"Yao Ming, like Ichiro, gives us someone to look up to besides scientists and engineers. My prediction is after Yao Ming, there is going to be a whole generation of Asian-American basketball players."

Makeover

The 1984 movie "Sixteen Candles" is an example of offensive images of Asians. In the movie, the character Long Duk Dong, played by Gedde Watanabe, always entered the frame to the sound of a gong and fulfilled every Asian stereotype.

ow, there's the television show "South Park" or the controversial Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts that were later pulled. Sprinkle in Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li movies that create the mainstream thought that all Asians know martial arts, and you have enough fodder for Connie So's American Ethnic Studies course at UW.

So said the Friday discussion topic in her class of 120 usually rolls around to how Asian men often feel emasculated in America. It's a feeling that stems from the 1800s, when men on the West Coast were building the railroads, So said.

"After the job was completed, there was a mini depression," said So, who has been a lecturer at Washington for 11 years. "Since there weren't that many women on the West Coast, Asian men took the jobs that white men didn't want like starting a laundry businesses, cooking, cleaning and what was called domestic work. This for some reason formed an image that they were passive."

Even though he's the third Chinese player to play in the NBA, Yao is clearly the most talented. And he's far from passive.

He publicly challenged Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal. He broke the wrist of Canadian forward Andrew Kwiatkowski while fighting for a rebound. He roars like a hungry lion after good plays.

"All Asian Americans adopt him because anything Asia does reflects on us," So said. "And he's so important, not because of his Asian-ness, but anything he does it will show that Asians can compete just like anyone else."

Ichiro vs. Yao

Tour buses still stop at Safeco Field. Japanese teens file out with cameras clicking and camcorders filming, trying to capture anything Ichiro.

The only problem is it will be five months before the right fielder plays in the ballpark again.

"It doesn't matter," said Howard Lincoln, Mariners chief executive officer. "They want to be where Ichiro played."

After experiencing two years of Ichiromania, fans in Seattle can understand the hoopla around Yao. Ichiro had about 100 media members at spring training his rookie season and 50 accredited media members tracking his every move last season. Most games were cross-cultural galas in the stands with fans dressed in traditional Japanese garb, holding signs or waving fans with Japanese characters on them to cheer Ichiro.

It's no surprise. According to the 2002 U.S. Census, 10.3 percent of the Seattle metropolitan area is Asian/ Pacific Islander.

The pressure to perform extends beyond the ballpark.

"When Ichiro goes to bat, he's not only worried about what the fans in the stands at the stadium or watching on television think, he's also performing for his entire country," Lincoln said. "It's a tremendous amount of pressure."

Yao is under the same microscope.

************.com is dedicated to anything Yao. It even has a running play- by-play that meticulously records his every move during games. There's a television crew following Yao around to film a documentary. And as Yao tours the West Coast playing with the Rockets, the arenas suddenly have a high Asian population that applauds his every step.

"I felt like I was the only person on the court at times," Yao said after the Rockets defeated Golden State on Wednesday in Oakland.

The season-high crowd of 18,401 was predominantly Asian. The Warriors accommodated the crowd by making announcements in English and Mandarin and had a halftime show that featured martial arts and colorful lion dancers.

"He's representing them," said Jim Stern, co-producer and director of "Michael Jordan to the MAX" and producer of the Yao documentary. "He's the first to break through and you can't fathom how popular he is. It's not just Asian Americans, either, I saw an African-American woman at a Houston game standing in a Chinese dress holding a sign that said something like 'Ming Dynasty' in English and Mandarin. That was so cool."

The difference between Ichiro and Yao is their demeanor. While Ichiro brushed off the media, Yao flashes his million-dollar smile in news conferences and doesn't shy away from a little joking.

After playing Dallas Mavericks center Shawn Bradley, he said, "Now I know I'm not the skinniest guy in the league." And when asked how he handles all this pressure, through an interpreter Yao said, "The best way to deal with it is sleeping."

The future

What's scariest about Yao's impact is that this is just the beginning. Team Yao, the 22-year-old's multi-pronged marketing group won't sign him to any endorsement deals until January or February. That hasn't stopped companies from calling.

"We're not being proactive at all," said Bill Sanders, director of marketing at BDA Sports Management. "We're not in any rush to do anything marketing- wise. But the phones are ringing off the hook and when someone calls, you don't tell them to call back in January or February, but that's when we plan to be proactive."

Sanders calls China "the last frontier" for marketing, and said Yao's only competition for endorsements in the country are pop-music bands. Currently companies want to make a Yao basketball game for cell phones and other video-game companies are hot after the rookie.

But all Yao wants to do is play basketball ... and drink Starbucks Frappuccinos.

"He buys it by the case," Sanders said with a laugh.

Yao, who had a breakout game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 17, is averaging 15.2 points and 7.2 rebounds his past five games.

"He's still got a ways to go, but he opened the flood gates," said Third Andresen, a 27-year-old program coordinator at Highland Park Elementary. "It's nice to see someone from Asia playing. It gets everybody involved, and believe me, this is long overdue."

 

I'm Chia-Chi Li

 

yeah. I started playing a lot of bball this summer and spouting calling myself "Mini Ming." Looks like word got around and the Seattle Times called me up

 

Guess which one is Chinese.

Pretty good article. I think it speaks a lot for why asian americans especially like yao.