The "Battle of Feng Gong" Begins and Ends: Who is Laughing at the Men's Football Team?
Text | Shi Xin Ouyang
| Shi Can
When the word "Feng Gong" landed at the top of the hot search list, many people were full of doubts.
Many people have got the star collapse PTSD, and think that this old artist has another storm, but when people tremble and open the hot search, after knowing the origin of the matter, or passionately type, or issue a helpless sigh: Oh, how is it the Chinese men's football team again!
In mid-March, a "Battle of Feng Gong" began, and the battlefield continued from media interviews to Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Weibo, and the two sides shouted and responded to each other, causing all netizens to look at "fun".
What is the "Battle of Feng Gong"? And what are they fighting for? Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigognshe) may have found some answers.
The "Battle of Feng Gong" began and ended
The beginning of the "Battle of Feng Gong" has nothing to do with the well-known comedian Feng Gong.
The cause of all the disputes was an interview. On March 6, 2022, on the occasion of the two sessions, the People's Political Consultative Conference Network released a video of an interview in the official media, and the interviewee was one of the central figures of the incident, the well-known comedy star Gong Hanlin.
In the video, as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, he made a criticism of all kinds of chaos in society, from doctor-patient relations, corruption to the chaos of the rice circle, one of which was "celebrities earn tens of millions of dollars, and they are still evading taxes and evading taxes", which made the melon-eating masses who had just experienced the Deng Lun incident call "prophets".
What really caused controversy was Gong Hanlin's evaluation of the Chinese men's football team, "A football team, with an annual income of three million and five million or even tens of millions, did not see them score on the court, completely humiliating to the Chinese." Despite the euphemistic use of "a football team", this passage still poked the focus of public opinion, and below the video, the onlookers were full of anger "Loud, Chinese men's football team!" ”
Soon, related topics were on the Weibo hot search list, and the topic was discussed 240 million times, once again setting off a big discussion about the national football team. Although supported by many netizens, Gong Hanlin still angered some football industry insiders, and the well-known football commentator Dong Lu quickly "opened a group", expressed dissatisfaction with Gong Hanlin's "humiliating" evaluation, and opened fire on the entire sketch industry, "Saying that it is like making money by going to the cave and performing a sketch at the Spring Festival Gala can earn Chinese how much face." ”
Dong Lu's response did not win the voice of the masses, and the comments and retweets under this Weibo were occupied by opposing voices. On March 7, Dong Lu angrily rebuked the speeches of the "Gong Hanlins" in the live broadcast, calling them "ball blind", believing that only when the era of public opinion dominated by "ball blindness" in Chinese football ends, Chinese football can usher in real development.
Although Dong Lu's firepower was fierce, it did not set off an excessive splash in the field of public opinion, and what really made this dispute go to the top of the whole network was Feng Xiaoting's fate.
Who is Feng Xiaoting? Former Chinese men's football captain and famous international footballer, is currently one of the most well-known players in China.
On March 11, Feng Xiaoting posted a post on the Little Red Book to share the training routine, and a fan in the comment area asked him if he wanted to retire, and he replied: "Retire, give way to Gong Hanlin." ”
Image source @ Beiqing Entertainment See
In the case that most players choose silence in the face of doubts, Feng Xiaoting's "ridicule" is particularly eye-catching. Gong Hanlin also quickly shot a short video to fight back, saying that "I don't understand football, but I will watch the score", the old artist directly opened fire, "how humiliating is it to perform a sketch, you are humiliated." ”
The cross-border dispute quickly aroused the attention of the whole network, taking the surnames of Feng Xiaoting and Gong Hanlin, and this "two blossoms of style" exchange also had a name, known in history as the "Battle of Feng Gong", and another performance artist, Feng Gong, was thus involved.
The "Battle of Feng Gong" intensified.
On March 14, late that night when Gong Hanlin video counterattacked, Feng Xiaoting posted a long Weibo post of more than 2,000 words in response to this dispute, "I am not responding to Gong Hanlin's teacher, I just want to talk about my heart at this moment." ”
Feng Xiaoting's "small essay" can be called a sense of truth, he started from the 2018 World Cup in Russia Japan was reversed by the Belgian team, elaborated on his views on this public opinion event, and from the perspective of post-match review, public opinion environment, salary and treatment, industry prospects, player reserves and other angles to detail the problems existing in the Chinese men's football team.
"Criticism and accusation are easy, it's hard to know yourself, and what Chinese football needs to improve is a doer, not a keyboard man."
Part of Feng Xiaoting's Weibo
Judging from the article, Feng Team's words are really not sincere? sincere.
But can it reverse public opinion? No.
Netizens do not buy it, close to 31,000 forwards are almost a scolding, shirking responsibility, self-moved... Similar comments became the most mainstream argument, and Feng Xiaoting did not let go of the comments, and only saw a dozen slightly sporadic "supports".
In the eyes of netizens, there are indeed many problems in the development of China's football industry, but the high salaries of Chinese men's football players can not get results, and the lack of fighting spirit on the field is infuriating, and the "glass heart" shown in the face of doubt this time has caused public anger.
The war continues to spread, and Dong Lu, who has been silent for a week, has once again passionately opened the wheat, and since March 15, he has sent a number of microblogs pointing directly at "pseudo-fans", saying that chinese football should not be used as a tool to vent anger and increase fans, and said that China lacks football culture and is a "primitive society" for Chinese football.
There are also other players who choose to respond from the field. On March 15, Chinese Super League player Yang Cheng sent a text to support Feng Xiaoting, saying that "Chinese football does often add to the blockage of the Chinese people, but Teacher Gong has not rushed the sketch out of Asia and pushed it to internationalization." He also pointed out that most of the "pseudo-fans" who do not understand Chinese football, believe that Gong Hanlin's voice does not understand the real situation in the industry, and called for "everything to start with respect and do their part".
But the comments of netizens are still sharp, and they mock Yang Cheng's "analogy". Feng Xiaoting also responded to the "Battle of Feng Gong" in an interview with the Oriental Sports Daily, saying that young players need a better public opinion atmosphere.
On the other hand, under the "help" of the majority of netizens, Feng Gong was really pulled into the "Battle of Feng Gong", a short video released on February 24, 2022 was re-turned out, in which Feng Gong made a joke about the sea cucumber incident of the national football team with the theme of what athletes like to eat. ”
The addition of Feng Gong made the "Battle of Feng Gong" more lively.
On the morning of March 17, #Mock chinese football should also have a bottom line ## Please support the national football in the trough # two major topics on the hot search list, the heat spread further, more and more people began to get involved in this dispute, former international Li Yi, actor Li Jiahang, well-known commentator Han Qiaosheng, and many KOLs have opened wheat, Feng Gong agent Fu Xiangbo also responded to the "Battle of Feng Gong" in the interview, saying that "lying shot".
At this point, the pattern of "Gong Hanlin and many netizens vs football industry insiders" has gradually taken shape, and in the debate, ridicule, and insults, the incident has also become absurd.
On the afternoon of March 17, Gong Hanlin once again released a short video, saying that the criticism was more "deep in love and responsibility", and posted a football that had been treasured for many years and signed with the signatures of Chinese football celebrities. However, it is embarrassing that shortly after the release of the video, some netizens pulled out that the signature was fake, and even Ou Chuliang, one of the "signers", posted that he did not sign.
For the "opponents", although it is still difficult to reverse the negative public opinion of the men's football team, the "old artist dressed as a fan overturned" has become an excellent mocking material, and no one expected that this "Feng Gong War" gradually rushed to the situation of chicken feathers in one place.
"The Life of an Abandoned Men's Soccer Team"
This "Battle of Feng Gong" was indeed particularly noisy, and the relevant controversy continued. Due to the big names of the participants, the rapid pace of response, and the fuel of the relevant marketing numbers, this series of you and me has a sense of ups and downs, full of gunpowder. Netizens naturally will not let go of any hilarity, shouting "addiction", many users have also joined this "battle", expressing various opinions in the comment area.
Not to mention the era of mobile Internet, football has always been an important part of the popular culture and national culture of countries around the world. Taking the traditional football power of The United Kingdom as an example, as the origin of modern football, the United Kingdom not only has a football industry with an output value of tens of billions of pounds, but also gave birth to a rich culture related to it, and the national consciousness and identity of different nationalities and regions have different forms of expression in it, which constitutes the characteristic football culture of each region.
Premier League (English Premier League) logo
Reflected in The country, in recent years, the men's football team seems to be more like a "meme" (terrier) in the field of public opinion, often appearing in various literary and artistic works, or ridicule or encouragement, and the image of "national football" is becoming more and more specific in it: the unaffordable Adou, it is difficult to seek a victory. When people talk about "national football", it is more of a helpless, hateful anger that does not make steel, and emotions are given to such a public opinion image, and today's lips and swords are only a concentrated outbreak in the Internet era.
Everything must return to the phrase "the dish is the original sin" that cannot be avoided in sports competition.
From the beginning of the sixth World Cup held in Sweden in 1958 to the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the men's football team has participated in a total of twelve World Cups. Of these, only the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan reached the final round of the World Cup (i.e., the round of 32), but it was eliminated in the first round of the group stage, and the other eleven were in the qualifier stage.
Logo of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup
Although many fans also believe that the reason why the host Japan and South Korea did not participate in the qualifiers in 2002, this year's historic results have indeed given them the hope of chasing the dream of the Chinese men's football team. Perhaps people who were full of expectations at that time did not expect that this would become the best result of men's football so far - after 2002, Chinese fans ushered in a long period of "disappointment".
Frequent coach changes, public opinion, capital influence, and luck, all kinds of reasons, after 2002, the Asian Cup, the World Cup, and even the Olympic Games, the Chinese men's football team has not been able to achieve too good results.
The various reasons for the loss have caused the patience of fans to fall to the bottom, when will the men's football team rush to the World Cup again? One coach after another "dropped", one goal after another was not blocked, the fans angrily calculated the "theoretical qualification possibility" after a game, up and down the pitch, the future hope of the Chinese men's football team is getting more and more dim.
At the same time, with the popularity and development of the Internet, the main space for fans to discuss the game has also shifted to more flat forums or social software such as Weibo, and related video materials have been more widely disseminated in the process.
On June 15, 2013, the Chinese national team lost to the Thai U23 national team by a score of 1:5, and Chinese football star Fan Zhiyi said in an interview that "the face is not needed", "It is going to lose Vietnam again, the Thai team has lost Vietnam, and then myanmar, and then no one has lost." This statement was later enshrined as a "classic quotation". "Face is gone" has also become a hot meme on the Internet of Chinese, not only football, but also more and more other fields have begun to appear this indignant phrase.
Fan Zhiyi's classic speech, screenshot of source B station
There is also a more classic "money refund brother". On October 13, 2016, the world preliminary round of the twelfth round, the national football team in Xi'an 0:1 defeat to Syria, in the post-match interview, the "brother of the money" and a group of fans expressed their anger at the door of the stadium, when the reporter's microphone reached in front of him, a loud, painful "RNM refund" made the entire interview become a classic that has been passed down to this day. The famous "brother who returned money" in world war I also began his football KOL career, and continued to pay attention to Chinese football on multiple platforms such as B station and Weibo.
"Brother Refund" classic speech, picture source B station screenshot
In addition to these, there are many related stems. When people are "having fun" to ridicule Chinese men's football, the pan-entertainment environment also allows the image of men's football to be deconstructed by a new generation of netizens, and the elements related to national pride and recognition are selectively dusted by people in repeated failures.
Back to the World Cup qualifiers at the beginning of 2022, around the Spring Festival, the Chinese men's football team lost to Japan and Vietnam one after another, responding to Fan Zhiyi's sentence "I will lose Vietnam again" a few years ago; subsequently, the women's football team showed amazing perseverance and technical tactics, and after 16 years, it re-won the Asian Cup, making all of China boil. The public opinion status of men's football has thus dropped to the lowest point in recent years, whether it is watching the ball or not watching the ball, more and more netizens have begun to mock the men's football team.
"The life of the rejected men's football team", which has come to this day.
Why fight?
Laughing stars like Gong Hanlin and Feng Gong comment on football, which is actually normal. For domestic sketches and cross-talk, the Chinese men's football team has always been an important source of materials, and the most classic jokes are still mentioned by netizens from time to time.
In the Spring Festival Gala of 1993, Feng Gong and Niu Herd's phrase "A white hair of Schlapner" brought Chinese football into the world of cross-talk sketches, and since then the national football team has become a regular in the Spring Festival Gala. The real ridicule of men's football began in 1997, in the spring evening, Feng Gong Niuqun performed the cross-talk "Two People's World", which had a classic dialogue: "What stinks the most?" "The Chinese men's soccer team has the stinkiest foot in the door!"
As early as that time, Feng Gong had already begun to play the men's football terrier in the spring evening, and in the following twenty-five years, he also used football as a terrier in the Spring Festival Gala works many times to ridicule the "lack of strength" of the men's football team, so it was not surprising that he was involved in the "Feng Gong War" because of the short video at the beginning of the year.
"Torchbearer", a screenshot of the B station of the source
And counting the men's football terriers in comedy works, the most classic is Song Dandan and Zhao Benshan's show "Torchbearer" at the Spring Festival Gala in 2008, in which the sketch made a joke about the national football team: "What sport looks heart-wrenching? "Football!" "What sport looks more heart-wrenching?" "Chinese football." At this time, the men's football team experienced a fiasco in the 2007 Asian Cup, losing 0:3 to Uzbekistan and failing to qualify, which directly led to the "dismissal" of then-head coach Zhu Guanghu, and the failure of "breaking through the bottom line of fans" also put them under great pressure of public opinion.
Cross-talk, sketches and other performance forms themselves have a strong sense of "irony", and even from another point of view, ridicule and irony constitute the soul of these language arts, and taking materials from reality is also a normal creative behavior of performers, and it is not necessary to be too harsh on this. They represent the voices of most of the followers, and contain disappointment and indignation that men's football has never been able to move upwards.
What's more, Feng Gong and Gong Hanlin did not blindly attack the Chinese men's football team, on November 27, 2001, at the Wulihe Stadium in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, the Chinese men's football team defeated Oman 1:0, and finally achieved the goal of rushing out of Asia and going to the world. In the spring evening of 2002, Feng Gong, Guo Donglin and Lu Ming performed the skit "On stage and off the stage", and Guo Donglin's allegro was still impressive:
"Bamboo boards are such a dozen, we don't boast about anything else." Boasting, Chinese football has finally qualified. The Chinese football team, hundreds of millions of people are concerned, generations of former servants followed by green silk to change hundreds of hairs. Entering the World Cup, I don't think anyone is terrible, including Brazil, Turkey, and Costa Rica. We all disagreed with it, kicked them 3:0 on the field, and everyone said okay?"
"On stage and off the stage", screenshot of source B station
In the overall trend of new China's economic development and political status improvement, the national recognition and cultural self-confidence of the new generation are also bred in it, but when everything is upward, the men's football team is still sluggish and has no rising trend, which is inevitably contrary to the overall trend, and the psychology of the gap is inevitable. As a result, the criticism and ridicule of hating iron and steel have more sources.
The so-called "Feng Gong" war, what exactly are they fighting? At the end of the day, it's all different perspectives on the same issue.
Rationally, although in the field of public opinion, Feng Xiaoting and other people in the football industry are in the inferior position, but what he said also provides an explanation for the plight of the Chinese men's football team from a professional point of view, blindly denying and attacking can not solve the actual problem, the players' "breaking defense" is excusable; and from the perspective of Gong Hanlin, the doubts about high salaries and low achievements are more normal, but even if the evaluation lacks professionalism, but from the sports competition logic of "strength is king", it is not too much to say that "the division is famous" is not excessive, and the definition of "pseudo fans" is "pseudo-fans" The way of counterattack is more difficult to hide the dilemma of the men's football team.
Fundamentally, what the two sides hope most is to see the Chinese men's football team come out of the trough and embrace the new life.
National football line out of the memorial sculpture, picture source network
At the age of thirteen, I saw for the first time the commemorative sculpture of the Chinese national football team, which is in the shape of a huge V-shape, carved with the image of the players who went out to compete in the World Cup cheering together, standing on the square in front of the Shenyang Library. Its last "home" is Shenyang Wulihe Stadium, which is the blessed land of Chinese men's football, and it is there that in 2001, the Chinese men's football team rushed to the World Cup for the first time. On that day, the whole country rejoiced, and countless fans held up the slogan "We are out of the line" and cheered for this long-awaited victory.
After many years, I can still feel the impact of the statue, it is incomparably huge and full of power. Standing in front of this huge statue, there is no "disappointment" or "anger" in the heart, only a silent blessing and expectation.
We all know that there is no Chinese who does not look forward to seeing such cheers and victories again.