Operation Yao Ming: The Chinese Sports Empire, American Big Business, and the Making of an NBA Superstar

by Brook Larmer

Describes the intrigues that brought the first Chinese players to the NBA, and discusses China's efforts to produce Olympic champions, the brutal Chinese sports machine, the life of Yao Ming, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592400787
• ISBN13: 9781592400782
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Gotham Books
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.7" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Interesting even for non-sports fans

The story of Yao Ming--the NBA's tallest-ever player who stands 7'6''--is necessarily the tale of the "sports machine," of politics, and of international business deals. Caught up in the forces of history, Shanghai's own homeboy has emerged as a symbol of the love-hate, push-pull relationship between China and the West. In Operation Yao Ming, award-winning journalist Brook Larmer has penned an enlightening and somewhat controversial account of the factors that shaped Yao's life, paved his way to the NBA, and rendered him a bridge to and eventually a symbol of East-West relations. Tension is the key operative word in this story. There is tension between Yao's life as a basketball player and what it might be otherwise, between Yao's life as the star on a Chinese basketball team and as 2002's number one draft for the American NBA, between American basketball training methods and the Chinese sports training system, between communism and capitalism, between the concept of sports as a way to glorify a nation and sports for their own sake. As a pawn in the center of all of this, Yao served as the key to unlock the treasure chest in many high stakes games--sports and otherwise. While the book is intriguing for its presentation of research on the Chinese basketball system and how its star player winds up in the NBA, a few faults must be mentioned. Operation Yao Ming was derived from a series of articles written for Newsweek between 2000 and 2003. While that means that the book displays the merit of much research, it also unfortunately succumbs to the hazards of allowing all that information to be hastily thrown together. The result is that the reader faces some abrupt topic changes and must suffer egregious repetitions--at times Larmer even uses the exact same adjectives, metaphors, and phrases. It is surprising that a seasoned journalist would not have done a more thorough job editing his material or hired someone to do it for him. The book also gives nearly equal billing to Yao's idol and rival, Wang ZhiZhi. Though some people may find this annoying, others--especially basketball fans--will enjoy the way Wang and Yao's paths to and experiences with the CBA and the NBA are compared and contrasted, with the tension of one man's successes measured against the other's hard luck and occasional role reversals. I, however, found myself distracted by the extra plotline. Overall, Operation Yao Ming is both entertaining and interesting. Those who find the inner workings of the Chinese sports machine, international politics, basketball training, the business of basketball, international business, or above all Yao Ming, appealing will enjoy this book.

Solid Read

I first saw Yao Ming in a Marriott Courtyard lobby during an AAU tour in '98. I was wowed by the secrecy around the guy at the hotel. Since then, I've been waiting for the real story...No fluff. Well, Larmer captures the story of Yao Ming and the rise of basketball in China with his research. Even better, he coorelates the rise of basketball to the development of the Chinese economic boom. Major props... Now, will critics of Yao please read this book about the environment that surrounded Yao and Shanghai during his development? Will they please realize that Yao would be better suited for a team concept? It's just unfortunate that he started off his NBA career by landing into a thug party in Houston. Critics have been killing Yao for becoming too soft or for not stepping up to the mantle. Yet, what they don't realize is that Yao is from entirely different culture that professes team not the "I" like the majority of today's NBA superstars. He's a team player and a product of Soviet Training who places the group's interests above personal accolades...Does anyone remember the late '80s version of Arvydas Sabonis? Larmer touches on all of the subjects surrounding the development of Yao Ming by detailing politics, the reign of Mao, alternative health and herbs, Soviet training methods, Nike, academies, agents, the NBA and sports marketing. Tie this in with 'World is Flat', and you'll see a glimpse of sports in the 21st century.

Yao story interesting; broader Chineses history is fascinating

I am NOT a huge sports nut...you know the kind who rattles off stats and knows all the players, but I really enjoyed this book. The story of Yao Ming was very interesting especially as it interlaces with China's history. I think it gives a very interesting look into the evolution of Chinese sports, politics and government. It kept me interested and I really looked forward to picking it up again every evening to read.

The Truth of Sport in China

The people who says this book doesn't understnad China doesn't understand China himself. Have they read the book? I am wondering. I have lived in China for 9 years and can say it is true sadly, in my experience. Even I am Chinese (Hong Kong), I feel it is true that the sport system is cruel in China. The sister of my friend was forced as a ping pang player although she had no interesting in it. Now she has no good job because her education was so little. It is cruel but she has no choice. THat is the truth about sport system in China. It is not like the west where people has choice. I think this book understands China, even as what is happened make some Chinese feel ashamed. But I am Chinese and I can admitting truth. Other people should admtting too and not feeling emmbarrased. I think this book author can feel good on telling the real situation.

A wonderful read, tells the big story of modern China

In this engaging, enlightening and elegantly written book, Brook Larmer makes use of a single entertaining narrative -- Yao Ming's passage to the NBA -- to unspool a far larger and more complex story, that of China's emergence on the global stage. In vivid and compelling detail, the book explores how Yao was engineered by China's Communist Party mandarins to grow tall and skilled enough to bring glory to the nation. Larmer's mission is as much historical as contemporary. He places Yao's rise in the context of China's own nationalist struggle to transcend its bitter experiences of colonialism, revealing how this basketball player carries far more on his back than his own personal ambitions: Yao is a prominent vessel of China's global aspirations and its mission to transcend past humiliations. The book is equally effective in examining Yao as a symbol of the outside world's increasing fascination with China and things Chinese, not least the smell of fresh profits in a land with 1.3 billion people. If the NBA is in the crudest sense a vehicle to sell everything from Gatorade to sneakers to television broadcast rights, China beckons as the largest potential market. In a classic tale of globalization, Larmer reveals how Yao sits atop one of the more powerful cross-currents of our time -- China's international aspirations intersecting with foreign business interests intent on penetrating the country. It is a complicated story freighted with historical and cultural import, and Larmer handles it with sensitivity, grace and balance. Above all, in tracing how this tall kid from Shanghai reached NBA stardom, navigating enormous obstacles, Larmer's book effectively probes the workings of power in China. He examines how the high-stakes struggle for the rights to Yao engaged a constellation of adversaries -- his family, the Communist Party, his Chinese team, the NBA. In so doing, Larmer has offered a valuable case study of the pitfalls of doing business in China, revealing the potential snags for foreigners seeking profit in a land that is increasingly capitalist yet still governed by Communist Party rulers; a land in which painful history -- particularly the Cultural Revolution -- still pervades relationships and commerce in the present day. Larmer's book will more than satisfy the basketball fan looking to understand a new star upon the scene. Far more important, this finely crafted volume supplies for the lay reader and China specialists alike new insights into the workings of the country and its engagement with the rest of the world.