Chinese fans need more cheering ways

Fans cheer for China's beach volleyball team last week at Chaoyang Park. [China Daily]

Cheers from home fans may inspire Chinese athletes in their pursuit of victory, but stalwart supporters are conscious of their limited scope of vocal encouragement - more or less confined to Zhong Guo Jia You or 'Go China'.

As China's victory over Germany was the first Olympics basketball game Lu Qun, 45, attended, he took his cue from other fans and joined in the 'Go China" chant.

"Yelling 'Defense!' or 'Charge!' doesn't sound right in Chinese, so I want to think up a few suitable Chinese slogans for future games," he said.

But Chinese fans generally find coming up with new cheers and slogans a challenge during the country's biggest-ever sports event.

"People just yelled randomly. All I could hear were shouts of 'Go China' from all directions throughout," junior student Chen Rui said after seeing China win bronze in women's 4x100m medley relay.

"I shouted with the crowd right from the first minute to the end of the first half part, but was so worn out in the second half that I decided to sit and watch rather than cheer our athletes," Xie Xiaoming, a basketball fan from Jiangsu province said after watching China beat the Czech Republic at the Wukesong Basketball Stadium on Sunday.

Republic of Korea (ROK) fans seem more organized in this respect than their Chinese cousins.

The ROK Olympic set up last May a supporters' association comprising 600 volunteers who buy tickets to matches and distribute banners, scarves, flags and other cheering paraphernalia to ROK spectators scattered among the crowd, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Tuesday.

Professional cheerleaders led ROK spectators in a set routine of slogan chanting and unified gestures throughout the games.

Despite being vastly outnumbered by local fans, their well thought-out support plan had a powerful affect.

"Chinese soccer fans know how to do the 'wave' and cheer their hearts out," said Ren Hai, a professor at Beijing Sports University.

"But as baseball is seldom seen in China, you can't expect local fans to know how to react when the 'Charge!' song is played on the organ, or how to come up with taunts calculated to torment the pitcher like: 'We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher!'"