By Gene Wang
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 27, 2003; Page D01
Accustomed to receiving dignitaries from President Jiang Zemin to other high-ranking Chinese officials, the Chinese embassy last night welcomed a visitor with a different sort of celebrity in Yao Ming. The 7-foot-5 center from China did not disappoint the throng of well-wishers who braved another round of snow to get a glimpse of and perhaps meet the most recognized Chinese face in America.
"I feel very honored to come to this place," said Yao, whose Rockets are in town to play the Wizards tonight. "To be here makes me nervous. To see all these lanterns makes me feel like I'm home. My impression of the embassy is like a fantasy, something from television or a movie."
When Yao arrived, he was greeted as if he were a star of the big screen. Adoring fans mobbed him as he tried to make his way to the entrance of the embassy. Yao obliged many of his supporters by signing basketballs, jerseys or whatever was put in front of him.
"I've never seen anything like it in my life. These people love him," said Colin Pine, Yao's interpreter.
And how the Chinese community in this area does treasure the player known as "The Golden Bridge" when he was playing in the Chinese Basketball Association. "The connecting of different continents," Rockets Coach Rudy Tomjanovich explained.
Walk into most any Chinese restaurant or other Chinese-owned business around MCI Center this week, and talk of Yao quickly fills the place. It isn't just idle chatter either. Chinese in D.C. and nationally aren't so much interested in Yao's scoring average or how a player standing so tall can move with such agility or pass like a point guard.
Yao's appeal instead is far more substantial, far more reaching than statistics or basketball fundamentals. In the way Jackie Robinson forged a path for African Americans, Yao is doing much the same for another race.
"I think it's somewhat similar," said James Sasser, the U.S. ambassador to China from 1996 to 1999 who had a hand in helping Yao gain clearance to play in the United States. "Jackie Robinson was breaking racial barriers. It's a little more complicated than that for Yao. I think he carries the responsibility of the Chinese race. He also carries the responsibility of showing that the Chinese can compete effectively, not necessarily against Americans but as part of this society. He carries the banner of the Chinese people."
In the role of cultural phenomenon and pioneer, Yao is guarded. He is most at peace on the basketball court, where he thinks of jump shots and the pick and roll and not about the charge of representing Chinese here in addition to 1.3 billion in China, including some 40 million from his home town of Shanghai.
"I try not to think like that," said Yao, who is averaging 13.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game and is third in the league in field goal percentage (52.2). "It's a lot of pressure. I just want to be an athlete. But this is something that can't be avoided."
Yao is not the first Chinese to play basketball in the NBA. Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer came first. But Yao's rapid ascension to elite status -- he started ahead of Shaquille O'Neal in the all-star game -- has made the first pick of the NBA draft the most visible and marketable Chinese athlete in professional sports history.
Commercials featuring Yao are commonplace these days. In one clever ad campaign for Apple computers, Yao is seated on an airplane next to Vern Troyer, better known as "Mini Me" from the "Austin Powers" movies. Yao begins working on his smaller-screen laptop, but not to be outdone, the 2-foot-8 Troyer pulls out his laptop with a 17-inch screen, drawing a big smile and a chuckle from Yao.
Yao's popularity among Chinese and Chinese Americans is most evident in Houston, where an estimated 1,500 fans of Chinese heritage attended the Rockets' home opener Nov. 2. That figure is close to 10 percent of capacity at Houston's Compaq Center. By contrast, the entire Asian population in Harris County, the most populated of Houston's three counties, is 5.1 percent, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.
More recently, an estimated 1,300 Chinese attended a Feb. 2 game to show support for Yao on Chinese New Year -- the Year of the Black Sheep, which portends peace and goodwill, according to the Lunar calendar. Banners with Chinese writing wishing Yao a happy new year hung from the walls, and fans carrying other signs with words of encouragement made sure they were conspicuous.
At halftime, performers staged a traditional dragon dance, much to the delight of Yao's cheering Chinese supporters.
"It's really amazing," said Michael Chang, the founder of the Houston-based Yao Ming fan club. "It really creates a lot of Asian basketball fans. I know wherever he goes, attendance goes up. Chinese people who may have never cared about basketball come to see him. It creates a new fan base for the NBA, which is a good thing for everybody. Also, it naturally enhances the awareness of Asians. Whoever thought an Asian guy could play center this well?
"We're oceans apart, these two countries. The general American public doesn't get the chance to go to China. It's the same with people in China not getting a chance to come over here. He can have a great impact on helping the understanding between the two cultures."
Tomjanovich knows well how special his center is. "It's been amazing the way he's handled it all. . . . There's something about his personality that brings people together. He's very warm. People love him. He has a great relationship with everybody on our team. I feel very comfortable around him, not only in basketball, but when you talk to him. He looks like a man who loves life and loves people, loves the differences in people."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company

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