China’s good at a lot of things. The mass production and exporting of goods. Blending modern innovation with cultural heritage. Fireworks. But given China’s 5,000 years of history, there are still certain departments in which it’s lagging. Some of it is China’s fault, some of it is the rest of the world’s, and some of it is just the way it is. Regardless, below are some areas where China can certainly afford to improve.

Photo: Erik van Leeuwen

1) Professional sports teams
It’s an ongoing joke that Chinese people aren’t very athletic or coordinated. This isn’t exactly true; they just often dominate in sports that no one else really knows and/or cares about. Ping pong, bandy, snooker, and curling are all big deals here, but when it comes to major professional sports, China doesn’t really have much of a presence. And when they do (like when the Chinese women’s football team finished second at the Olympics), the lack of support from their fellow citizens make such things almost obsolete. The example of women’s football seems to point to a gender bias, as the men’s football team enjoys much more support from advertisers and fans (despite having failed to score a single goal while losing three group matches in the 2002 World Cup). Even this internal support, however, fails to translate to international recognition.

2) Internationally successful movies
Of course there are a few Chinese movies that made a huge international splash – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers quickly come to mind. But even these face debate over whether they’re truly “Chinese films” – can a movie (in this case, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that has a Taiwanese director, lead actors from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and is produced by Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, and American film companies really be considered “Chinese film”? The rare international box office hits produced from mainland China always consist of such mixes and, as a result, are often accused of pandering to Western audiences. Chinese films that are solely funded by mainland Chinese production companies and use mainland China actors and actresses are still unable to find international distributors. Is the culture gap still just too large?

3) Supermodels
The introduction of China’s Next Top Model was a pleasant surprise to audiences in this country and certainly shows that Chinese women have what it takes to be great fashion models. The reality remains, however, that the rest of the world still hasn’t warmed up to the idea of putting a healthy representation of Asians out on the catwalk or in advertisements. It doesn’t help that when people debate “diversity” in the modeling industry, they tend to be strictly speaking about white vs. black skin. This leaves Chinese models out in the cold as an almost forgotten minority that only recently has gained more attention. Hopefully, with Asian women developing more and more buying power, advertisers and fashion designers will realize that their narrow ideas of beauty need to be widened quite a bit.

4) Nobel Prize-winning scientists
It’s no secret that Chinese people have a reputation for being smart – especially in the areas of math and science. So why are there only a grand total of eight Chinese scientists who have ever shared in a win, or solely won, the Nobel Prize in science? Four of these men completed their undergraduate work in Taiwan or Hong Kong before moving to the United States or the United Kingdom to conduct research. That means only four were actually living and working in China when they received their prize. For a country that prides itself on academics, this seems a little odd. It’s believed that such a low number of winners could be attributed to the fact that the few outstanding scientists in mainland China are often pressured into administrative positions, giving them very little time to devote to the research that’s necessary to win the Nobel Prize. Scientists are often also tempted to set up shop in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States because they have more advanced labs and more freedom to choose research topics.

5) Rock stars
True rock music didn’t really start in China until 1990, when Beijing held various rock concerts encouraging “originality.” Unfortunately, the period of Chinese rock proved incredibly short, hitting an all time high between 1990 and 1993 before promptly being shut down by the government. By banning rock music from TV and heavily restricting performances, the government essentially limited exposure to rock music to private underground parties. So while the rest of the world was headbanging to Nirvana and Oasis, China had a hard time putting out any distinctive rock acts. The reemergence of Chinese rock is an ongoing process, and Shanghai is one of the best places to witness it. There remains, however, a lack of Chinese rock stars with lucrative international appeal.

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