Fun and Snarl

Chengpeng Li, who came from Xinjiang, a remote place to me, is ranted in TOP 10 Chinese sports commentators. It is very pity; I have never been Xinjiang until now. But, I know Xinjiang a wonderful province in China, in which many minorities’ people live together. Chengpeng Li was born in the mixed culture atmosphere.

When I read his articles in his blog, I have to choose a private place. Do not misunderstand me or his blog! I do not mean there is something eccentric in his blog, which I cannot read in public. His articles are wisdom, facetious, and unexpected. When I read them, I cannot keep calm. Sometimes, I laugh loudly; sometimes, I get into consider; sometimes, I feel very sad. I have to say, I love his words.

Chengpeng Li must have two hobbies: reading books and watching movies. Of course, he loves sports, almost every sport, but it is his job or duty. Reading books and watching movies benefit people a lot. Those enjoyments are different from watch sport matches, because they are not unexpected, and most of them are not fact. Chengpeng Li combines the stories and plots from works of art with the sport matches. Sometimes, the readers may feel confused, because at the beginning of his articles, he writes some stories seem not correlative. It is very interesting, isn’t it? Chengpeng Li uses these stories artfully to support his ideas. When I have read the article, I found I fell into his trap, which was excavated by Mr. Li 3 or 4 minutes before.

Movies represent the dreams of us; books record the thinking of us; sports embody the nature of us. We cannot live without them. China has a long history, which is full of legends and allegories. Chengpeng Li always changes some elements of these stories, which make his articles alive but difficult to be understood by someone who do not familiar with these stories. Those typical scenes in movies always promote the plots to develop, but Chengpeng Li likes to put them at the end of his articles. Maybe he wants to give us a space to think.

Fun and snarl are two main forms in Chengpeng Li’s articles. Chenpeng Li was born in 1968, but he is still a furious youth (they are called Fenqing in China), who cannot tolerate unfair and abnormal things. Chengpeng Li is so lucky that he is a soccer commentator primarily. Soccer, which is always called as football in China, is a special thing in the big country. Soccer presents the biggest conundrum for the Chinese sports machine — the country has the money, the population and the fan base to put together a world-class team, yet has not succeeded. China has had a weird year, 2008, with a freak snowstorm, the Tibetan riots and an earthquake, but the performance of our soccer team shows that some things never change.

The men's national and Olympic teams are the objects of scorn, shame and much hand-wringing. Chengpeng Li has many topics and reasons to write articles about football, which makes him angry and desperate. “We play soccer like the Brazilians play Ping-Pong,” Weifeng Li, 30, the new team captain, said with a deflated voice afterward. Many Chinese would say that is an insult to Brazilian table tennis players. Facing this situation, Chengpeng Li seemed heavy. “It’s so beyond an embarrassment that it almost seems like a comedy,” Chengpeng Li as a popular soccer columnist, said in an interview before a football match. “We’ve cried our tears dry, and now it’s time for us to enjoy the big show, because you never know how our team is going to lose this time.”

As an emotional man, he can write every detail about Chinese soccer. Chinese soccer fans undertake so much pressure that they need outlets, which commentators like Chengpeng Li can give them. Chengpeng Li does not use some discourteous words to describe the situation, and his words are not over-emotional, without any restriction. What is the biggest sadness? Face one’s true love, but cannot rescue him or her out of the wood. I do not know who can rescue Chinese soccer, so does Chengpeng Li. What could he do? He chose the same way as Woody Allen: make people laugh. Laugh embodies backbone, which supports the Chinese soccer fans to accept the fact.

I can find all of his articles in football from his blog, that is really good news to me. What seems better is the articles in his blog are not limited in football even sports. Many social events inspire Chenpeng Li to write articles, from the melamine-contaminated milk, the earthquake in Wenchuan, to TV soap. Sometimes, I wonder why he, a 40-year-old man, is sensitive like this. Besides his comments, I find a novel in his blog-You Are My Enemy, which is a love story, full of romantic and warm memories. Love, the most significant topic of literature forever, occupies a important position in Chengpeng Li’s heart.

The World Cup is coming again, so Chinese male soccer team will participate again. Chengpeng Li will be much busier. Will he feel happy? The answer must hide in his blog.