Since 2005 the Chinese team has sung songs for every World Championships (every individual event championships since 2011). In the music video, you will have World Championships participants show up in the music videos, singing, rapping and tell you more about table tennis and World Championships. Here is the video including the past 10 WTTC songs sung by the Chinese. Most importantly they are subbed in English (The translation and subtitles are a heap lot of work😩)! Hope you like it and tell us your favorite WTTC song in the comment box below.
Which is your favorite WTTC Song sung by the Chinese Team? Do you have a hard time of choosing your favorite pick? Here are my thoughts on the 10 songs (It's just my thoughts, comments are welcomed).
Tags for the 10 Songs
The Most-Difficult-To-Translate
Winner: 2009 and 2010
Wuxia (Chinese martial art) fans might love the 2009 edition but it is really not translator-friendly. The song is jam-packed with Chinese martial art terms which are really hard to understand, not to mention translating them. For example, in Zhang Jike's line, the "Changing Muscles Forging Bones" is a trick mentioned in the Yijin Manual. There are also other tricks like "Shuffling over ripples", "18 Dragon-Subduing Palms" etc. I am not a professional translator but if the English subtitles raise your interest in table tennis or Chinese martial art, then I consider that as an accomplishment!
I did the translation in chronological order so the translation work of 2010 edition follows right after 2009. After the very very tough time, the 2010 edition was no easy task because the lyrics were written in literary style. However with the devastating 2009 edition ahead, 2010 edition is pale in comparison.
The Easiest-To-Translate
Winner: 2008
The 2008 edition took me the least time to translate (less than an hour). It's short, easy to understand but very informative as the lyrics itself has already told us who to follow and the crux of the championships. The down side of this edition is probably the not-quite-accurate pronunciation of Cantonese (which is a dialect widely used in Guangzhou where WTTC was held that year) and the overly-repeated grunts by the players. Maybe these helped audience to get ready for WTTC? I'll leave it for you to think.
The Most Dialects
Winner: 2005
Some people are surprised that the Chinese athletes rapped in the song. Well, the tradition of rapping dated way back in 2005 when the first WTTC song was produced for the 2005 Shanghai WTTC. In this edition, mandarin/putonghua is the main language used in the song but some players rapped in their dialects. Listen to the very end of this edition, despite athletes said the same phrase "waiting for you" but it sounds different. That's the fault of the dialects. Wang Liqin spoke Shanghai dialect, Qiu Yike spoke Sichuan dialect, Hao Shuai spoke Tianjin dialect and the list went on... Dialect is not as simple as different accents, it involves different pronunciation, sentence structure, word usage, so they are almost like another language. Fortunately there are Chinese subtitles or else even Chinese may not understand the song perfectly.
The Most International
Winner: 2007
If you call 2005 edition is a song of diversity, then 2007 edition is true diversity as there are 11 foreign players and ITTF president featured in the song. It is the song that featured the most non-Chinese players among the 10 songs. Li Jiao, Kim Kyung Ah, Liu Jia, Fukuhara Ai, Timo Boll, Ryu Seung Min, Michael Maze, Jorgen Persson, Vladimir Samsonov, Werner Schlager, Jan-Ove Waldner, all of them were contenders of the champion. Was table tennis the world of Chinese? Probably not!
The Most Informative
Winner: 2006
In the first few editions, the content of the song mainly covered the possible contenders of the championships, some introduction of the Chinese athletes and something about the host city of the WTTC. In 2006 edition, Guo Yue sang "There were a dog, a cat, a rooster and a donkey who led the path" which is element of the Town Musicians of Bremen. While Guo Yan mentioned about the AWD-Dome, the competition arena. I would say the lyrics of 2006 edition told us more about the host city, from its culture to the design of the arena. How could it be not informative?
The Most Meaningful
Winner: 2015
The theme of 2015 is "Love in Table Tennis". The clip showed footage of the Chinese National team members donating sports equipment to the children in need. The head coach of the Chinese team, Liu Guoliang also asked the media and the public to support their charity. It's not just about winning in table tennis but to use their popularity to encourage people to do good deeds. Very meaningful indeed.
The All in One
Winner: 2017
As the 10th edition of WTTC song, the 2017 edition gathered the characteristics of the past editions. It has rap, singing, grunting (Jah!), positive energy and highlights of the athletes' personal story. It's hard to include everything and because there are only 25 days for the production, so we are missing some foreign players and information of the host city in this edition. The producer said he hoped to give the audience more surprises next time, as many thoughts did not turn into reality due to some limitations.
My Favorite
Winner: 2013
Sometimes less is more. The 2013 edition does not have rap nor foreign players but it's my favorite WTTC song and it is in my phone. The theme of this song is "thank you". Sounds cliche but it is a very sweet word. Table tennis has taught me life lessons like overcoming hardships and be a good person. While the song "Thank you" always cheers me up and pushes me keep moving in hard times.👍
My Least-Favorite
Winner: 2011
To be frank, the 2011 edition is my least-favorite one. The lyrics would like to show the confidence in the athletes and they can handle the Worlds at ease but I feel like the lyrics is a bit arrogant. After all the charisma of sport is more about the sportsmanship and the close matches but not a clean sweep or national honor. Perhaps the past editions had a fast tempo so 2011 edition would like to create a more lay back atmosphere. Each has its good.
The post is named 10 WTTC Songs explained so it would not be simply an expression of personal thoughts but more...
Messages Convey Behind the Songs
We can see the theme and focus of the WTTC songs have changed over the years. In the earlier edition, the content of the song focus more on the contenders, winning national glory and the intensity of the World Championships. While in recent years (since 2013), the key message shifted to promoting the sport to the public and to the world. From 2013's "Thank you", "Love in Table Tennis" in 2015 and "Start Afresh"in 2017, play for national glory is still part of the content but more of the proportion is to utilize the popularity of Chinese table tennis to promote positive values and charity. Do you think it is a good way to develop a sport?
The 10th Throwback Thursday
Throwback Thursday has reached its 10th post (Yeah 👏👏👏)! Thanks for sticking with Throwback Thursday for 10 weeks and I hope you enjoy it. This series started all because it's after Marvellous 12 and there was not much to write about, so I wrote a post on that day which by coincidence was a Thursday and here comes Throwback Thursday. I could not imagine that I have come this far, making updates every week, re-visiting great competitions and doing research on the athletes who I planned to write about. The process is fun and inspiring (I hope you feel the same while reading the blog) but I think it is time to take a little break (2017 WTTC is the main reason). Don't worry because Throwback Thursday will be back and updates about the Chinese will be made regularly on this blog. Keep up with me by following the blog and comment below (anonymous comment is available). I would love to hear about your favorite Throwback Thursday and your thoughts about this blog! Thank you for your support!
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