A Heavy Burden

In the midst of relationship issues and conflicting interests involving Taiwan, Tibet and trade, an unborn baby has entered the picture of fights between China and the U.S.

At the end of February, Yao Ming, a Chinese basketball superstar who is also a member of the Houston Rockets, an NBA basketball team, and his expecting wife, Ye Li, returned to the U.S. The pending birth of their first child has become a focal point of discussion among Chinese internet users, basketball fans and the U.S. media.

Some Chinese people fear the loss of a potential basketball genius if the baby is born on U.S. soil and becomes a U.S. citizen. Some even started mercilessly attacking Yao.

The Chinese internet users’ responses are reminiscent of the boycott of French hypermarket chain Carrefour after a 2008 Beijing Olympic game torch bearer was harassed in Paris. Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang’s remarks that “competition is just like a game” also sparked wild accusations that he took the Chinese people’s expectations lightly.

In the eyes of Chinese people, Yao is the Easterners’ image of hope and goodness. The expectations of the common Chinese people have created an ever increasing burden. Yao and his wife’s decision on the child’s nationality faces public scrutiny and pressure.

The reason Chinese people are so concerned about where the “Yao baby” will be born is out of the fear that a seed of national pride and collective honor would be lost to a foreign nation.

Many people believe that Yao Ming will eventually choose China as the child’s nationality to satisfy the “standard” Chinese sense of national loyalty. However, if his child were to become an American, the backlash from his own nation would be unbearable.

The best gift to the expecting couple is a little bit of privacy, not intruding questions and doubts from their countrymen.

Yao Ming and Ye Li’s right to determine their child’s future should be respected.