Liu Xiang – Repositioning a Symbolic Hero

Liu Xiang's decision to abandon the heats of 110-meter hurdles due to injury was one of the biggest headlines of the recent Beijing Games. Reaction to the withdrawal prompted deep despondency in China, where he is the nation's most popular sports hero. From a semiotic standpoint, Liu's inability to perform created a crisis of symbolism for Chinese nationalists – without his victory, how could China really win?

Since his victory in Athens 2004, Liu has become a powerful icon of a self-confident and internationally minded China. Liu's achievements are seen as more creditable and impressive to a global audience than accomplishment in sports that China traditionally dominates, such as diving, table tennis and badminton. As a track athlete, Liu succeeded at an event normally monopolized by American and European athletes, providing an image of a resurgent China leaping over and past rivals.

“The Chinese people have stood up”. This stirring proclamation was made on the founding day of New China, a watershed political event resulting from popular victory of the Communists in the civil war. The weight of humiliation and indignation that had plagued the nation for centuries had been lifted, allowing the people to straighten their backs and stand upright. The trope of standing up was consistently deployed in propaganda during the Maoist years to remind Chinese citizens of the heroic role of the Party in rescuing the nation from trauma suffered at the hands of foreign powers and to galvanize national pride. In 2008 the act of standing up has evolved to become the act of hurdling. Marketers have found hurdling a convenient metaphor to communicate the overcoming of obstacles in pursuit of our ambitions – a winning combination in a nation of anxious parents and ambitious children!

Global brands such as Nike and Visa have used Liu and hurdling to present a message of optimism and transcendence to their target consumers. Local brand Yili perhaps best encapsulates the power of Liu's iconography with their brand slogan “turn your dreams into possibilities”. Even Shanghai, in their municipal branding uses imagery of a gigantic Liu striding over the city towards the “outside” to promote itself as the host of the World Expo in 2010.

In the aftermath of Liu's disappointment, Chinese media performed a symbolic repositioning of Liu after withdrawal from the hurdles heat. Rather than the expected triumphalism of victory, Liu has had to be recast as a paragon of resilience and a cool head when facing the vicissitudes of sports (read globalization and international realpolitik).

Marketers have already hinted at branding Liu's return to greatness. Days after his withdrawal one of Liu's main sponsors, Nike, released a local print ad with the athlete's portrait and the following captions "Love competition; Love risking your pride; Love winning it back; Love giving it everything you've got; Love the glory; Love the pain; Love sport even when it breaks your heart." It appears Liu's symbolism is simply too powerful to come to an end with his retreat from the track.