Is the Lotus Award demonizing China Sports? The details of this entry can explain this problem.

2017 February 13, the winning works of the 60th World Photojournalism Competition (Netherlands) were announced in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. China photographer Wang Tiejun won the second prize in the daily life category for the gymnastics girl "Sweat Makes Chinese Dream".

"Gymnastics again!" China netizens who learned this news sighed in unison. Indeed, China sports theme won the Lotus Award 1 1 times, among which China Gymnastics took seven seats.

In the context of western media, China athletes have formed an inherent "stereotype", and their image of hard training has also become a "weapon" to demonize China sports.

Wang Tiejun originally signed up for the competition of sports group photos, but the Dutch jury not only adjusted his competition category, but also selected a leaflet from the group photos, as if to say: This is the daily life of children in China.

In 2002, China photographer Jia's work "China Gymnastics Championship" won the third prize in sports.

Photos have feelings and can impress the judges more.

The Chinese name of Wang Tiejun's works is Sweat Makes Chinese Dream, and the English name is Sweat Makes Champion. The content of the work is that four gymnastics dolls of Xuzhou Children's Sports School do toe pressure training for 30 minutes against the wall.

Judging from the black and white of the picture and the expressions of the characters, several girls all showed sad expressions.

Photographer Wang Tiejun, vice chairman and secretary general of Xuzhou Photographers Association. In his view, although this award-winning work is accidental, "the award is expected."

In an interview with Tencent, he thought that the photos he took had feelings and could impress the judges more.

The work "Li Gymnastics School" won the third prize of the group photo of sports theme in 2005.

Wang Tiejun said that his winning work was shot in July, 20 16, and was filmed in Xuzhou Children's Gymnastics School for one week. This award-winning work is just one of his 10 submissions.

Gymnastics has been associated with China since sports pictures appeared in Holland.

1983, French photographer Gerard Lanchinan won the first prize in the sports story category with the theme of "Gymnasts preparing for the Olympics", which made face of china appear in Dutch sports works for the first time.

At present, four China photographers have won the gymnastics lotus prize.

Chu Yongzhi's "Warm-up" won the second prize of 20 13 sports action category.

The achievement of American children is that they like gymnastics?

After Wang Tiejun won the prize, some netizens thought it was a work that deliberately catered to the taste of western media.

The traditional training mode of sports talents, coupled with the cruelty of competitive sports, can easily make the western media misunderstand the competitive sports in China, which even becomes their "stereotype" of sports in China.

In 20 16, the British Daily Mail published a group of photos about gymnastics in China on social media, titled "This is how China won the Olympic gold medal".

China gymnastics girl photographed by British media.

This set of pictures shows the daily training scene of children in China. A 6-year-old girl who is practicing gymnastics hangs her knees straight on the bar, and the coach next to her wipes the tears from her eyes.

This set of pictures immediately caused an uproar in China. An article entitled "The existence of gymnastics girls is a shame and wound in our society" even said that "competitive sports in China is a life gamble that is more difficult than winning the lottery."

But then, Zou Kai, the "hardware network" of Olympic gymnastics, said in an interview with the newspaper that the training of any sport is hard and risky, and China gymnastics is not what people think.

"In fact, most people in China don't know much about gymnastics. Now all sports are humanized. In the past, they may have been groping and taking many detours. "

Later, the Workers' Daily directly questioned this. "When American children practice, they love and enjoy gymnastics. Our athletes won the gold medal, which is anti-humanity and a gold medal machine. Is there such a truth in the world? "

They believe that this is the daily life of children in China.

Teacher Ren Yue from Renmin University of China explained the gymnastics craze caused by the Lotus Award in China.

He once wrote in an article: chasing hot topics and looking for familiarity in cognition actually reflect Holland's limitations.

"For western judges, the rise of sports in China has been repeatedly reported by the media, thus becoming one of their stereotypes about China. Among many China themes, some topics of interest to local people can be ignored, while hot topics have become works highly recognized by Western judges. "

In Ren Yue's view, it is too late for the judges of Lotus to browse a large number of works in a short time and conduct in-depth research and discussion. "So the award-winning works of Lotus are only one side of the world, and it is more likely to be the side that has been repeatedly emphasized."

Chen Ronghui, a photographer who won the 20 15 Jose News Award, also expressed similar views on the award of this work.

He thinks there is no problem with the composition and skills of this photo, and it is really the type that western judges like from the content. And such a detail is more telling:

Wang Tiejun originally signed up for the sports team photo competition, but the Dutch jury not only adjusted his competition category, but also selected a leaflet from the group photo for selection.

In Chen Ronghui's view, the reason why the judges did this means that this photo is not a sports category but a life category. "They may think that this is the daily life of children in China."

However, Chen Ronghui also said that this prejudice of the Lotus Award is not only aimed at China, but also a common phenomenon. Looking through the award-winning works in the Netherlands, such as Brazilian female boxers, similar award-winning sports pictures abound.

Regarding this misunderstanding of symbolism, Chen Ronghui said, "This is their defect, but you actually recognized their rules of the game by participating in the competition."

Interestingly, as another symbol of China, the giant panda is also highly sought after in the Lotus Award.

"I found that foreigners who took photos of giant pandas in China often won the Lotus Award. Why has this not attracted attention in China? " Chen Ronghui said.