Yesterday's Ping Pong Super League final once again sparked significant controversy. Due to the interference of fanatical fans, both Wang Manyu in the women's team final and Lin Shidong in the men's team final appeared extremely agitated, which is unimaginable under normal circumstances. It can be foreseen that with Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng's withdrawal, Wang Manyu and Lin Shidong will become the next victims of these fanatical fans. As the head of the national table tennis team, what should Liu Guoliang do?
In yesterday's Ping Pong Super League final, the women's team final caused the most controversy when Wang Manyu had a dispute with Sun Yingsha and the referee, leading to a 10-minute interruption in the game. For Wang Manyu, who is usually calm, this scene was quite rare. There are various opinions about this incident online. Some say that Wang Manyu couldn't accept defeat and made a fuss over a single point, while more people believe that Wang Manyu wasn't making a fuss at the referee but was communicating with the referee due to the interference of fanatical fans, which led to the interruption of the game.
From the game, it can be seen that the on-site fans overwhelmingly supported Sun Yingsha's Shenzhen University team, which indeed had a significant impact on Wang Manyu and Chen Xintong's Shandong Luneng team. After the game, Wang Manyu rarely roared and waved her arms passionately to celebrate, releasing her pressure. Chen Xintong even praised Wang Manyu for daring to stand up against tens of thousands of people, calling her brave. This scene later topped the hot search list, showing that everyone saw it clearly but felt helpless.
Wang Manyu's experience is almost identical to Lin Shidong's. In the men's team final in the evening, during the peak confrontation between Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin, the audience overwhelmingly supported Wang Chuqin, constantly interfering with Lin Shidong. This caused Lin Shidong, who is usually emotionally stable in international competitions, to lose control multiple times in this match, making low-level mistakes and loudly venting his dissatisfaction. After the game, Lin Shidong spoke cautiously, afraid of saying the wrong thing and being attacked, which was heart-wrenching to watch.
In fact, Wang Manyu and Lin Shidong's experiences are replicas of what happened to Chen Meng and Fan Zhendong before. Chen Meng and Fan Zhendong were the biggest victims of the fan culture. Chen Meng has long been subjected to cyberbullying, and the women's singles final at the Paris Olympics became a masterpiece, which also marked the beginning of the country's actions to crack down on fan culture. Fan Zhendong also repeatedly stated that he wanted to distance himself from fan culture, and after winning the championship, he uttered the classic line "winning is not okay, losing seems not okay either," expressing all the bitterness in his heart. Even Fan Zhendong, at the prime age of 27 and in excellent form, decided to withdraw from international competitions largely because he could not bear the harassment of fan culture.
Now, after Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng withdrew, Fan Zhendong still participated in the Ping Pong Super League final, while Chen Meng did not participate in any formal competitions, leading to teasing that she had the most peaceful and happy time of her life. The new victims replacing Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng have become Wang Manyu and Lin Shidong. The reason is simple: Fan Zhendong was previously Wang Chuqin's main opponent, now replaced by Lin Shidong, and Chen Meng was previously Sun Yingsha's main opponent, now replaced by Wang Manyu.
Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin are the main representatives of the commercialization of national table tennis. This has nothing to do with their personal choices but is carefully crafted by the national table tennis team, making them currently the most popular, most sought-after by the market, and the stars most focused on by fan culture. Previously, the country took continuous action to crack down on fan culture, and the Chinese Table Tennis Association also declared a struggle against it. Now that Fan Zhendong and Chen Meng have withdrawn, Wang Manyu and Lin Shidong have become new victims. Who can guarantee that there won't be more people joining them? Liu Guoliang is in a difficult position, so how should he make his decision?
