乒乓球界的“中国制造”：大陆球员遍布世界

Ni Xialian helped the Chinese team win a gold medal at the world championships of table tennis in 1983. But even that was not enough to convince her coaches that she could forge a career alongside the best players in her country. So she left.

1983年，倪夏莲帮助中国队赢得了一枚世界乒乓球锦标赛的金牌。但即便如此，她也没能让教练们确信她能够进入这个国家的顶尖选手之列。于是她离开了。

Ni was a 7-year-old schoolgirl in Shanghai when she first fell in love with the game. Last week, at the age of 53, she competed in her third Olympics, wearing for a third time the uniform of Luxembourg, the nation she adopted as her home in 1991. In a sport that rewards the skill of subtle anticipation, her unconventional move 25 years ago has proved prescient.

倪夏莲最初喜欢上这项运动时，还是一个七岁的上海小学生。上个星期，53岁的她第三次征战奥运会，第三次穿上卢森堡的奥运队服，1991年，她移民到这个国家。在这项需要精细预判的运动里，她在25年前显得不合传统的行为如今看来颇具先见之明。

Back then, there was only a trickling migration of players from China to certain countries in Europe. But that movement grew, and today it has produced a full-fledged, far-flung diaspora of athletes on six continents that has reshaped the landscape of the sport.

当时，只有少数中国运动员移民到若干特定的欧洲国家。但是这股潮流不断发展，如今，六大洲都遍及着成熟的中国乒乓球海外军团，他们重塑了这项运动的面貌。

At the Summer Olympics here, Chinese-born table tennis players represented China, of course. But they were also playing for 21 other countries, out of 56 in the tournament. Of the 172 table tennis players at the Games, at least 44 were born in China.

在本届夏季奥运会上，中国出生的乒乓球运动员当然会代表中国参赛，但在56个参赛国中，还有其他21个国家也派出了中国出生的运动员参赛。在参加奥运会的172名乒乓球运动员中，至少有44人是在中国出生的。

Many sports at the Olympics feature athletes who were born outside the country they represent. The United States, for example, has dozens of athletes born outside the country, across more than 20 sports. But table tennis is an outlier: About a third of its participants this summer were born outside the nation they are representing. All other sports are far behind.

奥林匹克赛事中，有很多运动员都不是在自己所代表的国家出生的。比如美国就有几十名运动员不是在本土出生，他们分别参加20多个项目。但是乒乓球是一个异数：今年的夏季奥运会上，三分之一的乒乓球选手都不是在自己所代表的国家出生。这个数字远远高于其他项目。

No two athletes’ stories or circumstances are the same. But considered together, the list of Chinese-born table tennis players highlights the huge scope of China’s influence in the sport and illustrates its perhaps most pressing question: Is this the best way for table tennis to grow?

每个运动员的故事或成长环境都不相同。但是总的看来，中国出生的乒乓球运动员反映出中国对这项运动的广泛影响，也反映出一个或许是最为迫切的问题：这是乒乓球运动发展的最好方式吗?

“It’s not a problem,” Thomas Weikert, the president of the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport’s governing body, said last week in an interview. “It’s an issue.”

“这不是一个问题，”这项运动的领导机构，国际乒乓球联合会的主席托马斯·韦克特(Thomas Weikert)上周在接受采访时说。“而是一项课题。”

At these Olympics, it has been business as usual. Ding Ning of China beat Li Xiaoxia of China to win the gold medal in the women’s singles tournament. Ma Long of China defeated Zhang Jike of China to win the men’s competition. On Tuesday, the Chinese women won gold in the team competition, and the men are expected to do the same on Wednesday.

在奥运会上，一切都和往常一样。中国的丁宁战胜了中国的李晓霞，获得女子单打金牌。中国的马龙战胜了中国的张继科，获得男子单打金牌。星期二，中国女子队获得团体竞赛金牌，中国男子队有望在星期三同样获得金牌(本文中文版发布时，中国男乒已获得团体金牌——编注)。

China has now won 27 of the 31 gold medals awarded in all competitions since table tennis was added to the Olympics in 1988. Eight years ago in Beijing, China won the gold, silver and bronze medals in both men’s and women’s singles. In 2012, after a new rule was instituted limiting singles competitions to two players from each nation, China merely swept the gold and silver medals.

自从1988年乒乓球被列入奥运赛事以来，中国已经获得了31枚金牌中的27枚。八年前在北京奥运会上，中国包揽了男子和女子单打的金银铜牌。2012年的新规则规定，每个国家只许派出两名运动员参加单打比赛，中国继续包揽了男女单打的金牌和银牌。

One byproduct of China’s dominance — and the popularity of the sport in the country — has been an extremely large group of talented players who are not quite good enough to play in the national program. In the Chinese system, perfected over many decades, provincial clubs draw players from city teams before sending their best to the national program. Only the best 50 men and best 50 women reach the top.

中国的统治地位，以及这项运动在中国的流行程度造成了这样一个副产品：一大批运动员虽然很有能力，但仍不足以入选国家队。经历了几十年的完善，中国形成了这样的体系：省队从市队中选拔人才，之后再把最佳人才送进国家队。只有最好的50名男运动员和女运动员才能到达顶峰。

“There was too much competition,” said Ni, who left the national team in 1986 to attend college, before joining a professional club in Germany in 1989. “I didn’t have the courage anymore.”

“竞争太激烈了，”倪夏莲说，1986年，她离开国家队去上大学，1989年加入了一个德国的职业俱乐部。“我再也没有信心了。”

Such decisions became widely possible only after economic reforms in the country in 1978 loosened the rules for overseas movement and work.

这样的决定只有在1978年中国实行经济改革，放开了到海外定居和工作的规定之后才能实现。

Before the 1988 Olympics, Massimo Costantini, now the coach of the United States team, was playing for Italy in the European qualifying tournament when he encountered Ding Yi, a player who had moved from China to Austria. Costantini lost to Ding that day, and he remembered the other players, coaches and fans feeling bewildered about what had happened.

1988年奥运会之前，如今已成为美国队教练的马西莫·科斯坦蒂尼(Massimo Costantini)代表意大利队参加欧洲资格赛，他遇到了来自中国、代表奥地利参赛的丁毅。那天科斯坦蒂尼输给了丁毅，他还记得其他运动员、教练和球迷们对此都感到大惑不解。

“We were shocked, actually, to be playing against someone Chinese,” said Costantini, who was later added to the Olympics as a wild-card entrant.

“面对中国对手，说真的，我们都震惊了，”科斯坦蒂尼说，后来他凭借外卡参加了奥运会。

Ding played in four Olympics for Austria, and the trend only grew. Players facing dim prospects in China have increasingly sought to extend their careers as both players and coaches in other countries eager to host them.

丁毅代表奥地利参加了四届奥运会，这股趋势还在持续增长。越来越多在中国希望渺茫的选手去往渴望接纳他们的国家，发展自己的运动员和教练员事业。

“After I lost my opportunity to get into the Chinese national team, I was still young, I still had my dream,” said Eugene Wang, 30, who was offered a spot on the Canadian team shortly before the 2012 Games. “At the same time, I had this invitation. I just went for it.”

“失去入选中国国家队的机会时，我还很年轻，我还有自己的梦想，”30岁的王臻(Eugene Wang)说，2012年奥运会前不久，他在加拿大队中获得了一个位置。“就在那时，我得到了这个邀请，我就去了。”

Marcos Madrid, a player from Mexico, sighed and smiled when asked how players felt about the spread of Chinese players worldwide. “It’s complicated,” he said, echoing the sentiments of many players in the game.

被问到运动员们对中国选手遍布全球作何感想时，墨西哥运动员马科斯·马德里(Marcos Madrid)微笑着叹息。“很复杂，”他说，很多乒乓球运动员都有同感。

Everyone acknowledges how far ahead China remains in terms of training and skill. The thinking for many national federations, then, has been that having such skilled players and coaches around — beyond giving them a chance to win competitions in the short term — will raise the skill levels of a country’s other players.

所有人都承认，中国在训练和技巧方面遥遥领先。于是，很多国家的乒乓球联合会希望得到这样优秀的选手和教练，不仅仅是在短期内给他们机会去赢得比赛，也希望他们能提高这个国家其他选手的竞技水平。

“I know in my mind I need to practice more because they are there,” Madrid said. “我心里知道，因为他们的出现，我需要更加刻苦训练，”马德里说。

In most parts of the world, there are simply not enough good players to measure oneself against. Chinese players often double as coaches and valuable sparring partners for players in their adopted countries.

在世界上的大多数地方，优秀的竞争对手很难寻觅。在接受他们的国家里，中国选手通常得兼任教练和宝贵的陪练角色。

When Ni was asked to come to Luxembourg, it was mostly to coach. She only committed to playing full-time again when it became clear she was the country’s best player.

倪夏莲被邀请到卢森堡去时，主要是担任教练。结果她显然成了这个国家最出色的选手，只得再次成为全职运动员。

“I feel that it’s great that they can help other players improve,” said Ma, the world’s top men’s player.

“我觉得他们能帮助其他运动员进步，这样很好，”男子乒乓球世界排名第一的马龙说。

At the same time, many players become irked when the spirit of competition seems to be undermined.

与此同时，很多选手觉得竞赛精神遭到了破坏，对此感到愤怒。

Players notice when recently transferred athletes appear interested only in furthering their own careers, or fail to exceed some ambiguous threshold of enthusiasm about their new homes, or spend most of their time in their home countries.

这些选手们注意到，最近才更换国籍的运动员们只顾着发展自己的运动生涯，他们没有走过某些模糊的门槛，对自己的新国家毫无兴趣，抑或大多数时间还是呆在自己原来的祖国。

Such judgments — if they have a purpose — seem hard to make. Circumstances vary hugely from player to player, with only their talent as a common factor.

就算这样的判断有任何意义，也很难这样去下结论。每个运动员的情况都是不一样的，只有他们的才能是共同之处。

Some players, for example, move when they are young and thus develop easy, deep ties to their new countries. Gui Lin, 22, who represented Brazil this summer, moved from China to Brazil at age 12 on an exchange program. She ended up staying to play table tennis.

比如说，有些运动员在很年轻的时候就移居海外，所以很容易和新国家产生深切的联系。22岁的林桂今年在奥运会上代表巴西参赛，12岁那年，她因为一个交流项目从中国来到巴西，最后留在这里打乒乓球。

“I feel totally adapted to Brazil; all my colleagues consider me Brazilian,” said Gui, speaking crisp Portuguese. “But I can’t forget that I’m Chinese also, because I was born there. But for me I think this is very cool, a really unique experience, to be born in one country but grow up in another one.”

“我觉得自己完全适应了巴西;同事们都觉得我是巴西人，”林桂用流利的葡萄牙语说。“但是我没有忘记自己也是中国人，因为我出生在那里。不过我觉得这很酷，出生在一个国家，在另一个国家长大，这是一种独特的体验。”

On the other end of the spectrum are the many players like Li Ping, 30, who left the Chinese national team only last year to compete for Qatar.

李平的情况则与她截然不同，他今年30岁，去年才离开中国国家队，代表卡塔尔参赛。

“I don’t think it’s important which country you’re representing,” said Li, who was ranked 28th in the world before the Olympics. “The important thing is to be able to participate in the Olympics and demonstrate your abilities on the competition grounds.”

“我觉得自己代表哪个国家参赛并不重要，”李平说，在奥运会之前，他排名世界第28位。“重要的是能够参加奥运会，在赛场上展现自己的实力。”

In the end, it is hard for anyone to articulate which players are considered to have switched national allegiances the “right way.”

到头来，任何人都很难说哪一种更换国家的选手选择的是“正确的方式”。

That may explain why Weikert feels further adjustment of the rules is necessary before the next Olympics. At the moment, players who switch allegiances after turning 21 are not eligible to play in events like the world championships, the World Cup and the World Team Cup. But they are allowed to play in the Olympics.

这也许可以解释为什么韦克特觉得下届奥运会前有必要进一步调整规则。目前，21岁以后更换效力队伍的球员没有资格参加世锦赛、世界杯和世界团体锦标赛等赛事。但他们可以参加奥运会。

Weikert said he would like a single rule that allowed a player to compete for a new country after a lengthy period of residence.

韦克特说，他希望出台一条规则，要求运动员在新的国家居住满一段较长时间后，才能代表该国参加比赛。

“It doesn’t mean we can change the rule immediately,” Weikert said, noting that 222 national associations would need to vote. “Maybe other people are thinking another way, and I accept this.”

“这并不意味着我们可以马上改变规则，”韦克特说，他指出，改变规则需要222个乒乓球协会成员国投票通过。“也许其他人有别的想法，我接受这一点。”

Whether the rule changes or not, Weikert said he would like to do more to change the global imbalance in skill.

无论规则是否改变，韦克特表示，他都希望能做更多，以改变世界乒乓球技巧水平失衡的状态。

In the interview, Weikert revealed that the I.T.T.F. had begun work in recent months on a project through which young, non-Chinese players, with the cooperation of the Chinese association, could live and train in the country’s training sites for years at a time, learning and improving in that highly competitive ecosystem.

韦克特在采访中透露，国际乒联近几个月来已经开始推进一项计划，与中国乒协合作，让年轻的非中国选手能够常年在中国训练基地居住和训练，在这个竞争激烈的系统中学习和提高。

The plan, still in its early stages of development, has an internal name: Made by China.

这一计划仍处在初期阶段，它有一个内部名称：中国制造(Made by China)。

“Of course, it’s difficult for a sport if only one nation is winning,” Weikert said. “But this is not the fault of the Chinese. The others have to practice hard.”

“当然，一项体育运动中如果只有一个国家能赢，对于这个项目来说是很困难的情况，”韦克特说。“但这不是中国人的错。其他选手必须要刻苦训练。”