Operation Yao Ming

August 1, 2005
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. Agent, Rafe Sagalyn.

September 15, 2005
This book is much more than a conventional sports biography because the story of how Yao Ming came to the NBA is unique. Larmer, formerly Shanghai bureau chief for "Newsweek", explains that Yao was literally bred to be a basketball player. Both his parents were unusually tall, prominent basketball players, brought together by Chinese government officials in a clear example of state-assisted planned parenthood. As Yao grew in size and basketball ability, he attracted much attention and became something of a global trade commodity. Yao can even be seen as a metaphor for China's rapidly expanding position in world markets. The complicated negotiations involving the Chinese government, Chinese sports officials, sports agents, national shoe companies, the NBA, and the Houston Rockets are recounted here in detail. Throughout, Larmer contrasts Yao's success with the difficulties faced by the less-focused Wang Zhizhi, a Chinese basketball star born three years before Yao. Wang failed in the NBA and was not the "good soldier" of mainland China that Yao has been. The contrast reveals the desires and intentions of China's government, American business, and American professional sports. Recommended for all libraries. -John Maxymuk, Robeson Lib., Rutgers Univ., Camden, NJ

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2005
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)