Sobbing Chinese smash misconceptions of inscrutability

By Paul Majendie

BEIJING (Reuters) - Liu Xiang's coach sobs uncontrollably on television after China's national hero hobbles out of the hurdles. Spectators weep in the stands.

Four women rowers collapse in their boat after winning China's first rowing gold. Overwhelmed by raw emotion, they do not know whether to laugh or cry and end up doing both in spades.

Chinese shooter Du Li, the weight of a nation on her shoulders, crumbles in tears after failing to win the first gold of the Games with 1.3 billion people willing her on.

At the Olympics, the Chinese certainly are wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

"There has been an image in the West of Chinese sport being a machine bereft of emotion. This has changed all that," said Kaiser Kuo, a columnist on the Beijinger magazine who has watched the transformation of China's psyche while the world is watching.

"There are western misconceptions that the Chinese were only capable of displaying strident nationalism. This has given a human face to athletics," said this longtime observer of a fast-changing society.

Every four years, the Olympic Games opens a fascinating window into a nation's soul.

In 1984, Los Angeles was all Hollywood pizzazz and exuberant nationalism.