PHOTO BY JUNICHI MAEKAWA/JOC

Fans mob table tennis star Fukuhara on arrival in Beijing

Friday 08th August, 07:17 AM JST

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Latest 15 of 36 Total Comments Show All

Sarge at 05:10 PM JST - 8th August

MPNiea - "Ping pong is a joke"

I'll bet you're not good at ping pong. In fact, I'd venture to say you got whipped in ping pong! Hee hee!
Zer00 at 05:21 PM JST - 8th August

Nice.... says a lot about the Chinese people if they can adore a Japanese table tennis player! There is hope :)
Ninjazilla at 06:14 PM JST - 8th August

Of course they like her, shes always losing!
knucklerap at 06:23 PM JST - 8th August

People mobbed a ping pong athlete. Why?

Chinese people mobbed her. That explains it. They are as crazy for ping pong as they are for fire drills.

Himajin: I've often wondered if she can be a balanced person after that upbringing...

It's probably all down hill from here, but I think she learned a lot about Chinese culture which is probably advantageous.
shayouzoku at 06:50 PM JST - 8th August

cleo, remember her first summer vacation in elementary school, reporte don endlessly on the wide shows? Her parents gave her three days off during the summer, the rest of the time she was training. I've often wondered if she can be a balanced person after that upbringing...

this really isn't different than any other olympic athlete. they need to leave school to train endlessly, and then when their olympic career is over in their early 20s, what do they have left?
cleo at 07:12 PM JST - 8th August

shayouzoku - did you ever see Ai-chan when she was a child? The way her parents (especially her mother) treated that little girl was not normal.
Sarge at 08:49 PM JST - 8th August

"She(')s always losing!"

That must be why she's participating in the Olympics!
Jordan fades back...
Sarge at 08:53 PM JST - 8th August

"The way her parents ( especially her mother ) treated that little girl was not normal."

What's normal, Cleo?
Pukey2 at 08:55 PM JST - 8th August

I put 10,000 yen (no I'm not good for it) on Ai-chan not coming anywhere near a medal and being consoled as she cries her way through customs.

Fluent Chinese? I want to hear that for myself... "fluent" is bandied about way too easily for my liking.

Agreed. She's probably mastered 10 or so everyday expressions and phrases - hello; looks delicious; and sorry I have to leave early, I lost, where are my tissues again?

Here's a short interview with Fukuhara in Chinese:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=C17DFjQS4pM

Now, I myself am not fluent in Putonghua, but it appears that she has no problem communicating. Bear it mind that being fluent means you can make yourself understood and understand others with absolutely no problems, regardless of whether you have a slight accent or not. Having said that, the interviewer than asks Fukuhara why she has a North-East twang. I think she spent time in Liaoning. The interviwer herself is from Harbin.
flammenwerfer at 10:32 PM JST - 8th August

..and she got to carry the flag? very nice bit of P.R there, but usually that honour goes to a champion athelete - a former gold medallist. Murofushi, Kitajima, Tani etc would have deserved that honour more than Fukuhara.
OgieDoggie at 03:11 AM JST - 9th August

She plays Ping Pong so well that she is going to the Olympics, She's from Japan and she speaks Chinese and she's playing against the best in the world. This will probably be her last time...so give the kid a break...she represents your country so why can't anyone say something nice about her????
nimbus at 07:41 AM JST - 9th August

"...she represents your country so why can't anyone say something nice about her????"

That's because almost all posters on JT are not Japanese.
Athletes at 03:42 PM JST - 9th August

Whether she win or lose, she is more popular in China than Japan. She is youthful, diplomatic and presentable. She played ping pong with President Hu before. Although she lost it, I suspected she did not do her best to defeat him.

She will become the new marketing machine for Japanese companies. After all she does not need to care about a few commentators who does not have a star quality. she is a rising star for the rising sun.
Himajin at 07:50 PM JST - 9th August

this really isn't different than any other olympic athlete.

Really? Ai-chan's upbringing was definitely abnormal. Her mother/coach heaped on the verbal abuse, like junior high coaches do here, berating her,screaming in her face,but the problem was that the kid was only 3 or 4. Playing while bawling her head off that she was tired and hungry. Her mother became 100% coach, and an abusive one at that. I haven't read or seen other parents of athletes being featured in the news for behaving like that. I doubt most coaches in the US would use such methods.
Good_Jorb at 11:21 PM JST - 14th August

Ai-chan's upbringing was definitely abnormal.

Yes, she is the only athlete out there that has had their parents live their sporting dreams vicariously through them. Don't go watch pee-wee hockey, not only do parent's verbally berate thier own children but they also yell/scream/threaten other children, coaches and referees. In fact sometimes they even fight with each other.

When I think of youth sports, one of the frist things that always comes is the failed sports athlete parents, who push their kids to eventual fame or a serious drug addiction.