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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
ASIAN ATHLETES LIMITED BY GENES OR NURTURE?
o debate on the prospects of Asian athletes in American sports passes without mention of Yao Ming, the Shanghai Sharks's 7-6, 265-pound center who recently led China to an 83-82 upset over the U.S. His prospects as the likely top pick of the 2002 NBA draft have been trumpeted by no lesser authorities than Michael Jordan and Bill Walton.
But the 21-year-old superstar is literally one in a billion (1.25 billion to be exact). Young Yao is the product, genetically and culturally, of a 6-10 father and 6-4 mother, both of whom played basketball for China's national teams. His case is as likely to confuse the nature-vs-nurture debate as to help resolve it. After all, his height may be merely the tip of the genetic iceberg when it comes to his promise as a world-class basketballer.
More familiar to Asian Americans are Michael Chang (5-9) who won the French Open at age 17, and Ichiro Suzuki (5-9), whose batting and base-stealing have lifted the Mariners from the basement to the heavens. Both seem endowed with standard physical equipment but have outperformed more powerful physiques. And on the women's side Kristi Yamaguchi, Michele Kwan, Seri Pak and legions of Chinese divers and gymnasts have shown that champions needn't be amazons.
But these successes haven't silenced those who argue that as a race Asians lack the genetic gifts to challenge black and white athletes in power sports. Asians are genetically smaller and weaker, they claim, and can only excel in sports calling for quickness and agility. They cite Asian underrepresentation in track and field, football, basketball, soccer, tennis, boxing and the like.
Will the future mirror the past? Are we genetically limited to excelling only in a few select sports or will changing social and economic conditions produce a generation of Asian superstars across the sports spectrum?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:57:48 PM)
Junis,
Last time I checked the rankings there's no one Asian male or female tennis player that's top ten in the world and I wouldn't say that badminton players are tall either.
Economic imporvement is not going to make Chinese people that much taller.Chinese people are genetically shorter than Blacks and Whites. What you've said is just wishful thinking.
Jim
Thursday, January 31, 2002 at 00:49:19 (PST)
It's got to be nuture over genes. I am a proof of that. My AhBa, for those who already know what I am refering to. If not, it is what I call my dad. He is 5'1" and all his brothers, my uncles, are not taller than 5'6". My dad is the shortest of them all due to his poor diet. My cousins are all taller than their dads but taller than me. My mom is 5'3". My grandma is a giant compare to most asian women of her age. She is 5'3".
Anyway, they have raised me well in nuture. I came here in my early teens. I was considered short to most Non-Asian americans. I was small but after living and eating the food here, I grew like overnight. All throughout school, I was still shorter until I finish high school at 17. I got into college at 17 too. Nerd I am. So what? I am good in math, history, and of course science. I got the highest in science.
Back to about height. I am 6'10" now in 01.30.2002. My brother is even taller than me. I am Cantonese in case you are wondering. I have heard all the dumb comments and so called history books mentioning that Cantonese are shorter of all Chinese people. False!!!
I am not racially mixed or white or black. 100% sure.
The average height of all the male cousins are 5'11" and the females are 5'9". All but 2 were born in China. I was born in China too. A male and a female cousins were born here. Both are siblings. They are ABC.
In my teen years they were taller than me. When I was awared of my height for a male, I asked and looked at my father for answers. He is 5'1" and my mom is 5'3" tall. So I was doing the math and got an answer that my brothers and I will be
the shortest in the family. I didnt know anything I got the tall gene from my mother side. Well, my uncles (mom's side) are not that tall. The tallest is 5'9" or 175cm.
So I got 5'10" will be the tallest for my younger brother, 5'6" for my older, and maybe 5'9" for me. Since the youngest ones of my cousins did grew taller than their older siblings for eating good food here.
At 14, I was 5'10". My tallest cousin was 5'11". I said, maybe since I am younger and close I will grow more and I did. My older bro was 5'6" at 14. My younger bro was 6'0" at that age.
To make it short, we grew and grew taller and stand out in family photos.
Cantonese are the poorest of all Chinese. Why? Guangdong is a farming province. Many are farmers in the past. The govt took most of the food their grew so the farmers are eating potatoes, dried fish, and other not so fresh foods. They were feeding the fat and tall chinese of the northern states.
So when their children, ME, eating and live better than them, I grow taller due to nuture. My cousins are taller than their fathers. Every single one of them, including the females except one who became too Americanize due to those dumb and ugly fashion magazines that contain white skinny tall women. She read too much garbage and ate what it suggested and she didnt out growth her mom. My brothers and I are taller than all my cousins. They dont eat right and got different genes from my aunts so they grew less. I played basketball, swim, football, and tennis when I was shorter. Height is only 10% of your game, talent is 90%.
I have friends who were shorter than me, non taller yet. Their family members are all shorter than me. I always get strange looks and questions why I am so tall. Their ethnicity is not important so lets leave it at that. I am not saying I am the tallest.
I am saying my height is due to nuture.
Even you got good tall genes wont help if you are not eating well to support growth.
To all my readers. Eat and drink carefully and try to exercise.
Cantonese-American men
Wednesday, January 30, 2002 at 22:39:41 (PST)
Certain traits that distinguish one race from another maybe considered "normal" but it is definately not set in stone. We may take more notice of the the exceptions and so see them as oddities, but it just goes to show that possibilities are limitless.
To say Asians are genetically predisposed NOT to do well in a power sport is the equivalent of saying blacks don't have the mental capacity to call and make plays, thus explaining the lack of black quarterbacks and coaches.
Just because a certain sport is dominated by certain races, doesn't mean an "underdog" can't come up and bite someone on the back side and shake things up.
Moodangbulae
moodangbulae@yahoo.com
Wednesday, January 30, 2002 at 14:14:42 (PST)
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