When Kim Yu-na, South Korea’s figure skating sensation, takes to the Vancouver ice for her final programme this week, a nation’s pride will be riding on her 19-year-old shoulders. The near-hysteria back home surrounding her efforts to win an Olympic gold is all the more intense because her closest rival, Mao Asada, is from Japan, the old colonial enemy. In a nation used to seeing itself as an underdog, overshadowed by neighbouring China and Japan and all-but ignored by the rest of the world, sporting victory in an international arena takes on a supercharged significance.
上周，當韓國花樣滑冰熱門人物金妍兒(Kim Yu-na)登上溫哥華冰場表演最后一個節目時，19歲的她肩上背負著一個國家的榮耀。她為奪取奧運會金牌而付出的努力讓韓國全國為之幾近瘋狂，而成績與她最為接近的對手淺田真央(Mao Asada)來自昔日的殖民者敵人日本，這讓韓國民眾的情緒更為高漲。這個國家慣于自視為弱者，在鄰居中國與日本的光芒之下顯得黯然失色，而且幾乎完全為世界其它國家所忽視，因此國際體育賽場的勝利被賦予一種異常重大的意義。