Also, if you did manage to get 100 average Americans in a room, fewer than 5 would care about a pro hockey or soccer game, which is probably the amount that would care about one against another country. This past year’s Superbowl was seen by 97.5 million Americans or 32.5% of the population (of over 300 million legal residents). So, out of your group of 100 U.S. patrons, 67 wouldn’t even care to watch America’s biggest sporting event of the year, much less any other type of sporting event against a different country. It’s great to have so many sports choices, as opposed to those in other countries, but the audiences are fragmenting more and more over time.

That isn’t to say that American fanatics aren’t “noisy, arrogant, overbearing and obnoxious” about our sports, but most just don’t care about sports (or much else for that matter) that happen outside our borders. One just has to look at whenever the Mexican soccer team plays the U.S. team in the U.S. There are more fans in the stands rooting for Mexico than the supposed “home” team.

racist clap trap tolerated by racist expats who whine all day about racism.

‘pawi’s race baiting…’ sonagi

‘zip, silence, no words, not even a whisper, shhhhhhhhhh.’ sonagi to orank’s racist filth

(1) The irony. During the dictatorship years, even average Koreans, especially overseas Koreans, would call pro-democracy, anti-torture, and other such protests in front of Korean diplomatic missions “anti-Korean.”

(2) For Koreans to really dislike anyone, you have to have a personal and direct reason. This is true for any people group, but Koreans don’t connect the dots in abstract ways very much when it comes to identifying who the nasty mofos are when they’re that just as a matter of principle. Which is why you occasionally (less frequently in the last decaed it seems) see Nazi theme bars in Korea, which while they last are patronized by people who equate Japanese colonialism with Nazism in a very “same=same” kinda way.

Every once in a while you get a taste of what China can be like, for example if a Korean student in Beijing gets beat up at a football game, but frankly I think there are a lot of Korean kids running around these days who have given thought to Goguryeo only because China brought it to their attention, even though they might think it was founded by Park Chung-hee.

What I like about the riot that it was simultaneously highly symbolic - which is of course that ends up _mattering_ most - and very tangible in the sense that it was up close and personal for Korean society to see and experience, instead of being a foreign news report or a story quoting ancient history experts telling people how incensed they should be about something they can’t actually see happening (the Goguryeo swipe).

Post-war South Korean society has still had so little direct experience with China. IMHO anything that adds a little perspective is helpful.