Given the language barrier, not much information has gotten to here about recent developments in cubing in China. As the second largest participant in the WCA, by both competitor number and competition number, China's impact on cubing is obvious. Here's my attempt at explaining some of the recent cubing situation in China.
First is the story of the CCA's beginnings, as I wrote last fall. My Chinese is not fluent, there's a chance I've misinterpreted some aspects of this, so take what I say here with as much salt as you please. The spoiler's there for a reason, be warned.
tl;dr - The CCA began as an attempt to eliminate the WCA from China, and has continued with that with various threats as they began to host competitions.
That was the situation here as of last fall. Since then, the CCA has held further competitions and expanded their competition format. With a new WCA delegate in the north-east, exactly where they complained that the WCA was refusing to hold competitions, they seem to be trying to move away from their former claims of providing competitions where the WCA could not. Throughout this, most competitors seem happy to compete and have a good time regardless of the organization. I think that's a good attitude.
On the WCA side of things, there has been a lot of growth. Just recently we doubled the number of WCA delegates in China while we continue to increase the number of competitions held and experiment with new competition styles. We look forward to being able to further provide for the cubing community here. As for the WCA's relationship with the CCA, their latest tactic has been to demand that WCA competitions be held as joint WCA/CCA competitions, else they will prevent any WCA competitions from being held. They want to use the WCA to legitimize their own organization. Given their previous threats, we see no need for the WCA to cooperate with the CCA, but I'm fine with a live and let live relationship. Unfortunately the CCA still doesn't seem willing to accept this.
One problem I see in China is a view that the WCA is a 'foreign' organization, rather than something created by the community as a whole. I feel there's a divide separating Asian cubers, particularly Chinese cubers, from their American and European peers. I think there stands to be more international integration among cubers. There are some posters on speedsolving that I recognize from MF8, but I think there is still a significant gap between communities. A better understanding of the international community and the WCA would help both the Chinese cube community interact with other cubers, and help the WCA better spread within China.
The growth of the Chinese cubing community that I've seen in the past several years is enormous. As the second largest and a rapidly growing participant in the WCA, I think there is much that can be done to work toward better serving the Chinese community and better integrating the Chinese community with the cubing community at large. Cube competitions in China have been regularly held for over five years, and I can only imagine that they will continue to spread. Exactly how they will operate in the future we can only wait to see.
In case it's not clear, 2006KRUE01 is me.
First is the story of the CCA's beginnings, as I wrote last fall. My Chinese is not fluent, there's a chance I've misinterpreted some aspects of this, so take what I say here with as much salt as you please. The spoiler's there for a reason, be warned.
The founding of the CCA was announced at the WCA ChangChun 2010 competition on August 1. Several delegates mostly from north-east China were announced, with Haiyan Zhuang as "honorary president". After this, there was a long period of silence. While public interest was obvious, no information was available. Who exactly composed the CCA wasn't even known, as the previously named delegates never said anything about it. At the end of August, a CCA Beijing competition was announced for September 24. This was called the first CCA competition, along with the founding of the CCA.
In September, a CCA spokesperson was announced, who never again made any announcements. It was about this time that a WCA competition organizer received a threat, saying that they should pull out of organizing the competition, lest they "become the first victim when the CCA destroys the WCA".
The CCA Beijing competition went well, everyone enjoyed themselves, aside from me, as the organizer decided he needed to ridicule me during a speech in the middle of the competition. What disappointed me was that, after repeatedly saying the CCA intended to hold "Chinese competitions" that the WCA was somehow incapable of holding, the competition was run exactly like a WCA competition. A set of CCA regulations were announced, which were in fact directly plagiarized from the WCA regulations without attribution. When after the competition a competitor asked about how the results would be published, CCA "honorary chairman" Liping Shang responded very flippantly, saying they had no responsibility to tell anyone anything.
Since then, the CCA has held many competitions in north-east China, and recently begun expanding to the south. They have put a lot of work into holding these competitions, and I appreciate the service they're providing to the local community. The WCA is still limited in China, so the drive of the CCA to hold more competitions, though not unique from the many local competitions regularly held throughout China, is admirable.
The story of the founding of the CCA has varied significantly. The current version of the story centers around a supposed WCA bias against north-east China. In the spring a competition organizer from north-east China came to Beijing to meet with me and ask about becoming a delegate. I told him that as I didn't know him I couldn't make a recommendation myself, but that I would not oppose any recommendations by the Chinese delegates and would help anyone recommended as best I could. He agreed with my view. However, given that he also told me that night that "perhaps there is no one in north-east China suitable to delegate", I'm not surprised that no one was later recommended. In May in another discussion about delegates, I again said I was supportive of any recommendations made by the other delegates, and welcomed other suggestions and advice. Later another WCA delegate was added in northern China, who had a close relationship with the competition organizers in the north-east. Between then and now, this has been reinterpreted as an "arrogant and rude" refusal to allow competitions to be held in the north-east. This, despite the fact that there are many regions of China without WCA delegates, and while we are working to add more, the lack of delegates has a basis in the past intimidation against delegates and people rumored to be future delegates.
In September, public interest in the CCA jumped. While the CCA spokesperson was silent and other CCA organizers mostly refused to answer questions, only one CCA delegate was willing to respond to questions. While he had previously said that he does not speak for the CCA, and the page of the CCA website explaining the organization structure was in fact blank, he was the only person at the time to respond directly to questions about the organization. Some questions brought up include: Questions about the basic structure of the organization and how people can participate. How CCA delegates are chosen. The glaring textual mistakes in the official CCA charter. The illegal usage of an image of the Chinese flag on the CCA website. The fact that the WCA ChangChun 2010 competition results were retconned as CCA results, despite the fact that competitors did not even know of the existence of the organization until the day of the competition, and were given no option of participating or not. The cost of CCA "membership". Contradictory statements that have been made about the organization structure. Some questions were ignored, while the remainder got a request for patience until the issue can be resolved. Many of the responses have been rather hostile. For example, in responding to the point about their usage of the Chinese flag as a logo, honest advice that potentially saved them from a heavy fine, the CCA delegate said those questioning them should "spit up blood and die". For the question of the ChangChun results, the promised one week period for a response passed, and the question has since been ignored. To now, none of these questions have gotten a real response.
At the end of October there was a sudden announcement, "Regarding the CCA". It apparently took three months before it was decided to try to explain what the CCA actually was. Unfortunately, this explanation didn't actually provide much information. With a lot of people pressing for actual information, a day later the CCA organizational structure was announced. Of note were two names, an advisor and a vice-president. Both of these people are big names in the Chinese cubing community, and their participation would give a lot of support to the organization. It wasn't until a few days later that everyone found out that the advisor was asked to take the position only two days before, and wasn't actually willing to do so, and that the vice-president didn't find out he had become part of the organization until two days afterward, and also wasn't willing to participate. Beyond this, the announcement only provided more conflicting information about questions even as simple as the organization's name, structure and founding.
More than the lack of transparency, the hostility displayed by the CCA is troubling. Beyond the previous threat of becoming a "victim" of the CCA, some CCA organizers, on suggesting plans to also hold WCA events, have been told that will make them "enemies of the CCA". Contradicting their public statements, they've also said privately that their goal is to prevent the WCA from hosting events in China. The upcoming WCA competition in Shenyang was delayed by a week so as not to conflict with a CCA competition. After the WCA competition was announced, another CCA competition was announced for the same day, and the organizer has apparently been using contacts within schools to tell the mostly student cubing population that they cannot attend the WCA competition. I support people's choice to participate in whatever events they wish. I had a lot of fun attending a non-WCA inter-university competition in Beijing in November. As such, I am disappointed that the CCA feels they need to threaten people to not interact with other organizations.
One issue is the CCA's relationship with Haiyan Zhuang. Initially announced as "honorary president", it was later claimed that Haiyan was never involved with the CCA. His actual involvement is still unclear even to the CCA delegates. While they are certainly free to associate with anyone they choose, it is disappointing that they have supported him even in a recent spree of blatantly abusing people online and with threats and insults over the phone.
Within China, there are many factors that make organizing competitions uniquely difficult, compared with my experience in the US. Because of this, I fully support the idea that supposedly drives the CCA, an organization that helps organize and run cube competitions for the sake of the community. Regardless of if they worked with the WCA or independently, I think such an organization would be beneficial to the Chinese cubing community. However, I don't think that opposing the WCA is helpful to Chinese cubers, nor is using the organization as a vehicle for personal vendettas all while lacking any sort of transparency about what they are actually doing.
In September, a CCA spokesperson was announced, who never again made any announcements. It was about this time that a WCA competition organizer received a threat, saying that they should pull out of organizing the competition, lest they "become the first victim when the CCA destroys the WCA".
The CCA Beijing competition went well, everyone enjoyed themselves, aside from me, as the organizer decided he needed to ridicule me during a speech in the middle of the competition. What disappointed me was that, after repeatedly saying the CCA intended to hold "Chinese competitions" that the WCA was somehow incapable of holding, the competition was run exactly like a WCA competition. A set of CCA regulations were announced, which were in fact directly plagiarized from the WCA regulations without attribution. When after the competition a competitor asked about how the results would be published, CCA "honorary chairman" Liping Shang responded very flippantly, saying they had no responsibility to tell anyone anything.
Since then, the CCA has held many competitions in north-east China, and recently begun expanding to the south. They have put a lot of work into holding these competitions, and I appreciate the service they're providing to the local community. The WCA is still limited in China, so the drive of the CCA to hold more competitions, though not unique from the many local competitions regularly held throughout China, is admirable.
The story of the founding of the CCA has varied significantly. The current version of the story centers around a supposed WCA bias against north-east China. In the spring a competition organizer from north-east China came to Beijing to meet with me and ask about becoming a delegate. I told him that as I didn't know him I couldn't make a recommendation myself, but that I would not oppose any recommendations by the Chinese delegates and would help anyone recommended as best I could. He agreed with my view. However, given that he also told me that night that "perhaps there is no one in north-east China suitable to delegate", I'm not surprised that no one was later recommended. In May in another discussion about delegates, I again said I was supportive of any recommendations made by the other delegates, and welcomed other suggestions and advice. Later another WCA delegate was added in northern China, who had a close relationship with the competition organizers in the north-east. Between then and now, this has been reinterpreted as an "arrogant and rude" refusal to allow competitions to be held in the north-east. This, despite the fact that there are many regions of China without WCA delegates, and while we are working to add more, the lack of delegates has a basis in the past intimidation against delegates and people rumored to be future delegates.
In September, public interest in the CCA jumped. While the CCA spokesperson was silent and other CCA organizers mostly refused to answer questions, only one CCA delegate was willing to respond to questions. While he had previously said that he does not speak for the CCA, and the page of the CCA website explaining the organization structure was in fact blank, he was the only person at the time to respond directly to questions about the organization. Some questions brought up include: Questions about the basic structure of the organization and how people can participate. How CCA delegates are chosen. The glaring textual mistakes in the official CCA charter. The illegal usage of an image of the Chinese flag on the CCA website. The fact that the WCA ChangChun 2010 competition results were retconned as CCA results, despite the fact that competitors did not even know of the existence of the organization until the day of the competition, and were given no option of participating or not. The cost of CCA "membership". Contradictory statements that have been made about the organization structure. Some questions were ignored, while the remainder got a request for patience until the issue can be resolved. Many of the responses have been rather hostile. For example, in responding to the point about their usage of the Chinese flag as a logo, honest advice that potentially saved them from a heavy fine, the CCA delegate said those questioning them should "spit up blood and die". For the question of the ChangChun results, the promised one week period for a response passed, and the question has since been ignored. To now, none of these questions have gotten a real response.
At the end of October there was a sudden announcement, "Regarding the CCA". It apparently took three months before it was decided to try to explain what the CCA actually was. Unfortunately, this explanation didn't actually provide much information. With a lot of people pressing for actual information, a day later the CCA organizational structure was announced. Of note were two names, an advisor and a vice-president. Both of these people are big names in the Chinese cubing community, and their participation would give a lot of support to the organization. It wasn't until a few days later that everyone found out that the advisor was asked to take the position only two days before, and wasn't actually willing to do so, and that the vice-president didn't find out he had become part of the organization until two days afterward, and also wasn't willing to participate. Beyond this, the announcement only provided more conflicting information about questions even as simple as the organization's name, structure and founding.
More than the lack of transparency, the hostility displayed by the CCA is troubling. Beyond the previous threat of becoming a "victim" of the CCA, some CCA organizers, on suggesting plans to also hold WCA events, have been told that will make them "enemies of the CCA". Contradicting their public statements, they've also said privately that their goal is to prevent the WCA from hosting events in China. The upcoming WCA competition in Shenyang was delayed by a week so as not to conflict with a CCA competition. After the WCA competition was announced, another CCA competition was announced for the same day, and the organizer has apparently been using contacts within schools to tell the mostly student cubing population that they cannot attend the WCA competition. I support people's choice to participate in whatever events they wish. I had a lot of fun attending a non-WCA inter-university competition in Beijing in November. As such, I am disappointed that the CCA feels they need to threaten people to not interact with other organizations.
One issue is the CCA's relationship with Haiyan Zhuang. Initially announced as "honorary president", it was later claimed that Haiyan was never involved with the CCA. His actual involvement is still unclear even to the CCA delegates. While they are certainly free to associate with anyone they choose, it is disappointing that they have supported him even in a recent spree of blatantly abusing people online and with threats and insults over the phone.
Within China, there are many factors that make organizing competitions uniquely difficult, compared with my experience in the US. Because of this, I fully support the idea that supposedly drives the CCA, an organization that helps organize and run cube competitions for the sake of the community. Regardless of if they worked with the WCA or independently, I think such an organization would be beneficial to the Chinese cubing community. However, I don't think that opposing the WCA is helpful to Chinese cubers, nor is using the organization as a vehicle for personal vendettas all while lacking any sort of transparency about what they are actually doing.
That was the situation here as of last fall. Since then, the CCA has held further competitions and expanded their competition format. With a new WCA delegate in the north-east, exactly where they complained that the WCA was refusing to hold competitions, they seem to be trying to move away from their former claims of providing competitions where the WCA could not. Throughout this, most competitors seem happy to compete and have a good time regardless of the organization. I think that's a good attitude.
On the WCA side of things, there has been a lot of growth. Just recently we doubled the number of WCA delegates in China while we continue to increase the number of competitions held and experiment with new competition styles. We look forward to being able to further provide for the cubing community here. As for the WCA's relationship with the CCA, their latest tactic has been to demand that WCA competitions be held as joint WCA/CCA competitions, else they will prevent any WCA competitions from being held. They want to use the WCA to legitimize their own organization. Given their previous threats, we see no need for the WCA to cooperate with the CCA, but I'm fine with a live and let live relationship. Unfortunately the CCA still doesn't seem willing to accept this.
One problem I see in China is a view that the WCA is a 'foreign' organization, rather than something created by the community as a whole. I feel there's a divide separating Asian cubers, particularly Chinese cubers, from their American and European peers. I think there stands to be more international integration among cubers. There are some posters on speedsolving that I recognize from MF8, but I think there is still a significant gap between communities. A better understanding of the international community and the WCA would help both the Chinese cube community interact with other cubers, and help the WCA better spread within China.
The growth of the Chinese cubing community that I've seen in the past several years is enormous. As the second largest and a rapidly growing participant in the WCA, I think there is much that can be done to work toward better serving the Chinese community and better integrating the Chinese community with the cubing community at large. Cube competitions in China have been regularly held for over five years, and I can only imagine that they will continue to spread. Exactly how they will operate in the future we can only wait to see.
In case it's not clear, 2006KRUE01 is me.
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