(Cross-posted from the Ogilvy8.com blog here)

I’ve always held that anyone trying to get a grasp on how people really feel about an issue should take the comments they read on BBSs or any other anonymous online forums with a large grain of salt, irrespective of the country we’re talking about. I generally dislike it when selective comments are used by the media to paint a picture of online sentiment anywhere, and lament that this seems to be a particularly popular approach when trying to take the temperature of China, when compared to other countries.

People posting behind the shield of anonymity, and with no accountability for their posts, all seem to strive to outdo one another in the sheer audacity and offensiveness of remarks.

With that caveat in mind, while I’m not surprised to see that some absolutely horrible and insensitive things are being said, the vast majority of messages I’ve seen in on Chinese BBSs are very sympathetic to Liu Xiang after he shocked the nation by pulling out of competition earlier today. Obviously I couldn’t read too many of the literally tens of thousands of posts that appeared just in the first hours after Liu’s announcement. The CCTV press conference that Liu’s coach Sun Haiping and Athletics head coach Feng Shuyong gave this afternoon probably expressed well, I think, the disappointment, while deflecting any frustration that might have been directed at the coaching staff or at “authorities” who might have pressured Liu unduly. Most people are talking about how they’re praying for him, how they’re disappointed, how they’re still rooting for him to recover.

Yet there are a few people who are calling him a “shame,” or criticizing him for being vain, or for cracking under pressure and blaming an injury, or for being able to endure his agony for commercial shoots but not when he’s on the starting block. But they’re in the real minority and they’re generally being shouted down.