Michelle Wie

[bhchao]

Check out this article on Michelle Wie, the 16-year old Korean gal from Honolulu who can drive a golf ball 391 yards, and can outgun nearly half the men on a professional tour.

This daughter of first-generation Korean immigrant parents has the potential to be the best golf player ever.

Here is some worthy competition for Tiger Woods

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/personalfortune/articles/0,15114,1112502,00.html

[Ian_Lee]

Bhchao:

Wie is very popular in Hawaii. And the blunder that she recently made in her first pro game made headline everywhere in the world (including Chinese media).

But undeniably she was cheating. And like most American kids, Wie steadfastly denied cheating in front of the camera.

[geraldc]

Athough the drop she made was a foot or so closer to the hole, how far was it still to the pin?

[bhchao]

Ian, I highly doubt that Wie cheated and the mistake she made was intentional.

First of all, I think it is unfair to direct attention at a teenage girl's mistake. She is still young and teenagers are prone to making mistakes. One of the good things about growing up is learning from your mistakes and not repeating them, and I doubt this is lost on her.

Second the reporter delayed reporting the mistake that day. Take a look: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2005/10/21/sgmair21.xml&sSheet=/sport/2005/10/21/ixgolf.html

Had he reported the incident before Wie signed her card, she would not have been disqualified. He should have known the consequences for Wie if he reported it late. But instead of doing the right thing of reporting the mistake on the spot, he delayed in reporting it. As a result, Wie got disqualified instead of being penalized two shots.

[skylee]

She's become quite pretty. And it is refreshing that her name is 魏 (instead of Lee, Park, Kim, etc).

[nipponman]

What kind of chinese is she? I have never hear of a last name of "wie" with 魏. Must be korean right?

[gougou]

the 16-year old Korean gal

Quoting from the first post... I think it's time to stop the speed reading!

[tluroc76]

I hope she lives up to the hype. She has shown great potentials but until she gets a few majors under her belt, she still needs to prove to the golf world. Hitting hard, far is fine and advantageous but doesn't guarantee any win. I hope she does well though.

[ChristianYi]

skylee,

it must be refreshing to you because wie sounds like chinese......but she is korean, sorry that there is no chinese girl who has the ability and potential of michelle wie....

[ChristianYi]

bhchao, was it innocent? if it was, i take my sarcasm back, but i don't think it was innocent.......

[bhchao]

Chris, skylee's remark was actually quite innocent. She didn't mean it to be perceived that way.

[skylee]

I intended to compliment her (forgive my poor English if my remark doesn't look like a compliment). And I knew she was korean, but I think her surname is less common in korea.

As to whether there are Chinese girls with the ability and potential of michelle wie, I think there are a few young Chinese female athletes who have won medals in important events like the Olympics, Grand Slam, etc ...

[Ian_Lee]

The school that Michelle attends -- Punahou -- excels in producing athletes. I read from their yearbook that there are some ethnic Chinese students who are good in some other sports.

But of course, golf rules in Hawaii.

[ChristianYi]

skylee,

i take my sarcasm back.....

[ala]

it must be refreshing to you because wie sounds like chinese......but she is korean, sorry that there is no chinese girl who has the ability and potential of michelle wie....

魏 (wei2 in Mandarin) is a common Chinese surname, especially in northern China; it is much less common in Korea.

But I guess that doesn't mean much since 李 Li/Yi/Lee is quite common in Korea too. (sh)

BTW, your comment wasn't sarcastic, it was actually rather racist.

[ChristianYi]

ala, thanks for such an educational information (this is sarcasm)..........actually, correction, it was nationalist rather than racist.......but i guess you are entitled to your opinion.....

[Quest]

ChristianYi: This and this should keep you busy for a while. Meanwhile, no one here is against you or the Corean people, your belligerency is really unnecessary.

If that's your style, I recommend this site. I am sure you will find many people willing to discuss with you the Korgoryo issue.

[ala]

ChristianYi: This and this should keep you busy for a while. Meanwhile, no one here is against you or the Corean people, your belligerency is really unnecessary.

Haha, in the uglychinese link (http://www.uglychinese.org/korean.htm) there was a lot of Li Hui sources used.

Li Hui of Fudan Univ (who is currently in Yale anthropology postdoc) is a Wu-"nationalist" and Shanghai native. Li Hui also developed a romanization scheme for Shanghainese. He strongly believes that there is a separate Wu 吴 people (distinct from Yue 越/粤, Baiyue 百越) who make up a large portion of today's Wu-speaking Shanghai and southern Jiangsu populations, and who originally came from the Hmong population (M7 marker exists only in the Wu population and can be directly traced to the Hmongs). Anyone who has been to Shanghai's suburbs knows that the vocabulary the locals use there is incredibly different from mainstream Chinese (like fast 快 is "oso", to fly 飞 is "bon"). Also the Hmong origin of Wu-speaking peoples would confirm why Wu dialects have such complex tone sandhi and seem to be "non-tonal" compared to other Chinese dialects. So there is a lot of anthro, genetic and linguistic evidence to support all this, but I bet he is also quite personally motivated.

越人在七八千年前就在上海的松江发展。吴人要到3000年前才进入上海。“越人各民族的身上有大量的M119突变。吴人则很少有，他们更多的是M7突变，那是从苗瑶语系分化出来的。”当初南亚先民从云贵高贵西侧进入中国后，还有一支人群与汉藏民族分开了，他们沿着长江往下走，这个时候，他们DNA链上位点在M134的基础上发生了M7的突变。

　　这个人群在洞庭一带形成了苗瑶语系。“吴人就是苗瑶人东进和南下的汉人同化后形成的，所以他们遗传结构的变化多而复杂。”

Generally he hypothesis a northward expansion of East Asians, rather than the previous southward expansion.

[bhchao]

Came across this article:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200604/200604210011.html

...Michelle Wie’s father Wie Byung-wook, a professor of transportation at the University of Hawaii, agreed to a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Thursday.

“I’m well aware there that some say, since Michelle Wie is an American why is she making such a fuss. But you know what, the only thing about her that’s American is her passport, she is "definitely" Korean.” The golfer’s favorite dish is “rice with pork Kimchi soup with extra tofu and toasted seaweed on the side.” Her mouth waters when she hears about Bossam (boiled pork) or steamed codfish, and Soondae (Korean sausage) and Deokbokki (broiled rice pasta with Korean chilli paste sauce). She may have been born in America but her first words were Korean, and she did not start learning English until after she was attending school.

These days she enjoys watching Korean variety shows like "I Love Sundays" and "X-Men," she likes to dance to the music of TVXQ, and she sympathized with the main characters of "Winter Sonata" and "Autumn Fairy Tale."

Wie's pet name at the house "Wie ssagaji" (ssagaji is Korean slang for "spoiled" or "impudent" ). The star athlete reportedly handles her sports and studies well on her own, but when she does not clean her room or listen to her parents, they jokingly call her by this name.

Wie cannot forget the time when she played golf with former president Bill Clinton at the end of October of last year. Clinton reportedly told Wie that she would be a leader for minorities in America in the future, and in the near future the U.S. will be a country where the minorities become majority.

The round with Condoleezza Rice last month was another big event. Wie said it was quite a scene: the golf course that was totally surrounded by the black governmental cars and the eight bodyguards that never leave Rice's side were quite impressive.

Michelle Wie is planning to apply for the Stanford University to major in the study related to economics. This is in preparation for her 40’s and beyond when she can no longer play golf professionally.

[heifeng]

But undeniably she was cheating. And like most American kids, Wie steadfastly denied cheating in front of the camera.

I hardly think cheating or denying it is just an 'American thing'. Ever hear about Chinese students cheating on college entrance exams, GRE, or other exams, or some of the Korean students antics during HSK exams?.....CHEATING is universal!

I don't know anything about her 'cheating' but ask, do I even care, it's golf, it's probably made the game more interesting. Scandel gets people's attention.

As far as her daddy's interview, let's see how 'Korean' she is when she makes her first Maxim cover. Most parents think their kid's in the US are 'good, traditional' kids. I know this first hand growing up in the US and all my friends (mostly from east and south east asia ) were 1st generation kids or moved to the US at a young age. Trust me, those kids know how to play both roles, the good kid, good student that their parents expect, and then still go out and party and go wild their friends. Visit Korea town on any given night and there are many a Korean girls partying it up and then probaly going home to their tranditional parents who think their child is a saint. That's why parents who immigrated to the US tend to be more controlling of their kids, unlike most US parents who give their children more freedom to roam the streets. Many of these Asian parents think they "know" their kids, but I seriously doubt it....Secondly, what's so bad if she is identified as an "American"? If being an American is so bad then she can probably switch to a Korean Passport. However, I am assuming her family came to the US for a reason...but apparently it's somehow bad to be associated with the country in which they chose to move now.

I don't even know how I stumbled upon this thread...