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Operation Yao Ming
 
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Operation Yao Ming [Hardcover]

Brook Larmer (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
Price: CDN$ 36.00 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
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From Publishers Weekly

The 7'5" Yao Ming didn't get where he is today because of some lucky genes and a good three-point shot. Everything about him, from birth to first endorsement deal, was planned by a confluence of government and business interests intent on creating a superstar. Basketball has been popular in China since the late 19th century, so a government with a Soviet-style, militaristic sports system intent on creating world-class athletes thought little of mating its tallest athletes in an attempt to pass on their genes. Thus in 1980, Yao was born to the tallest couple in China, the result of matchmaking that carried with it the dark shadow of eugenics. From there, a government campaign worked to turn "a boy with an ideal genetic makeup into the best basketball player in Chinese history," writes Larmer, and it wasn't long before Nike and the NBA had their hooks in him. Larmer, Newsweek's former Shanghai bureau chief, crafts his narrative well, explaining the byzantine interests competing for their pound of Yao's flesh with admirable simplicity. Yao's story is so controlled that when he finally overcomes his initial clumsiness and starts rebelling against his government at book's end, it's hard not to feel empathy for the gentle giant.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Larmer, former Newsweek bureau chief in Shanghai (and Buenos Aires, Miami, and Hong Kong), traces the development and emergence of Yao Ming as China's first bona fide NBA star, from the arranged marriage of his parents--both reluctant but sensational, and tall, basketball players in China--to his care and feeding as a youth by PRC sports officials, to Nike's savvy insinuation into Yao's career and into mainstream Chinese culture in the mid-1990s, to his number-one selection in the 2002 NBA draft. Not coincidentally, Yao's story here reflects the seismic shifts taking place in Chinese sports, post-1949; it starts with a country virtually invisible in the global arena that becomes, by the time of Yao's emergence, an international power not embarrassed to flex its muscle. If Larmer's account succeeds in contextualing Yao in the high-octane world of the NBA, it also succeeds in revealing one aspect of China's more fundamental struggle with its socioeconomic identity in the world today. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and well entertained, Nov 28 2005
By 
Leah (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Operation Yao Ming (Hardcover)
One of the reason I like this book is that the book does not have any bias. I have not read any book written by an non-Chinese American with such precise understanding of Chinese history and the current Chinese sport system.
The book is not all about Yao Ming, a Chinese NBA player and his family. It is about how China produces top sport players through its strict, demanding and brutal sport system. When I was reading the book, I have both negative and positive feelings towards that system at once.
From the book, we will learn how other players before Yao Ming made their way to NBA and their mistakes including personal miscalculations, especially the example of the other Chinese NBA player named Zhang Zhizhi.
From the book, we will learn how both Nike and NBA started their business in China 10 years ago and slowly opened its vast market by cultivating relationships with slow-witted Chinese sport mandarins and budding stars like Yao Ming and his very protective mother, a former Chinese basketball player.
From the book, we will also learn how cunning Chinese business men inside and outside of China take the advantage of "getting rich is glorious" economic policy in a chaotic and lawless business environment to make big bucks by exploiting honest and naïve Chinese people such as Yao Ming's family.
The book is full of adventures in China in a new way of thinking, understanding and fitting in. The book is well written by a journalist (minus some small mistakes on Chinese history). One does not have to love basketball to pick up this book as long as you have a string of curiosities about China, you will be well entertained.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.1 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Yao story interesting; broader Chineses history is fascinating, Oct 13 2006
By E. WIe "Mother of four" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Operation Yao Ming (Hardcover)
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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Story but......., April 3 2006
By Don from SF "coach41" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Operation Yao Ming (Hardcover)
I read the entire book while on a 11 hour flight from the US to China. All in all, the book was good, lots of background info on Yao, his parents and even disgraced hoops star Wang Zhi-Zhi.

However, I'm not sure I buy into the book's theory of China trying to be matchmaker and have Yao's parents to produce tall offspring. Why stop at Yao's parents? They certainly weren't the only tall people in China at the time. As most of us basketball fans know by now, Yao Ming (by himself), cannot carry the Chinese National Basketball team. The team needs more capable players to compete against the European and American teams.

Another minor complaint of the book is the re-cycling of previously written articles about Yao. Perhaps there just isn't a ton of written material about Yao, but I know there were a few sections regarding Yao there were paraphased from other sources. As an avid reader of anything Yao, I wish the author could have been more discreet or rewrote the source material differently. As is, it was just annoying to read something and feel like "dang, I know that came from somewhere before".

I did finish the book by the end of my plane ride. :) All in all, despite the misgivings of the theories and the apparently recycling of some articles, the book was fairly entertaining and you do learn something about Yao, his family and others in the Chinese sports empire.

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing book about big YAO, Jan 17 2012
By SdDSS - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
very good book to know a broader background of Yao Ming and the cultural difference between US and China. But I doubt some of the information in the book, like the marriage between his parents, cannot believe it's only for the genetic consideration by the government. Anyway, a must read book for Yao!
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 18 reviews  4.1 out of 5 stars 
 
 
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