Chinese sport commentator loses cool
By Yu Nan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-06-27 19:34

A Chinese most popular sports commentator sparked a huge debate as he shouted "Long Live Italy" and "I don't like Australia soccer team" after Italy oust Australia with a last one minute penalty shot to reach the World Cup quarter-finals early Monday. (See Chinese sports host apologizes for losing cool )

Huang Jianxiang, a state-run China Central Television (CCTV) sportscaster, lost his temper as Francesco Totti of Italy scored a penalty with one minute remaining to give Italy a 1-0 win over Australia in the second round.

huang jianxiang, chinese commentator, world cup
Chinese most popular sports commentaror Huang Jianxiang. [sina.com]

The 38-year-old shouted himself hoarse after Italian defender Fabio Grosso tripped over Australia's Lucas Neill's challenge. As Francesco Totti blasted home the penalty, Huang shrieked in excitement.

"Extremed and crazy as he is, Huang is not qualified to be a soccer show commentator of a national broadcaster," a netizen named Zuotao Youmai aired view on sina.com, one of China's top portal websites.

"Huang totally throws out his status as a professional sports commentator, instead, he acts like a fan off his trolley to vent personal disgust with a team," another netizen Yangyu commented on sina.com forum.

Known Chinese portals websites like yahoo.com and sohu.com's online forums were flooded with messages on Huang's outburst all day Tuesday. The percentage of netizens who blasted Huang and backed him seems to be "50-50".

A "Quick Vote" on sina.com reveals over 33 percent of web surfers says Huang's passionate paean to Italian football is ill considered; 13 percent hold part of his wordings are inappropriate.

"Huang went too far," said an identified surfer of sina's chat room."He shouldn't have praised the bad-playing Italian team and jeered at a brave squad, defeated though."

"Huang can bring out as much of his personality as necessary to make him stand out among other commentators, it is encouraging," a netizen Yellow Hat writes on sina online forum, "but saying 'I don't like Australia' is something audiences can't understand."

However, another group of netizens praised Huang's way of commentary as breaking with tradition. The vote run by sina.com shows nearly 50 percent think Huang's commentary is full of passion.

A netizen named Long Fire told to chinadaily.com reporter that Huang makes full use of simple and direct language to describe what had happened on the pitch.

"All of us should share the passion Huang brought in," he said, "He shouted himself hoarse though, he is full of wisdom and excitement from head to toe."

"The World Cup itself is a big carnival, why don't we indulge ourselves in the quadrennial soccer party with him?"
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