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Euro 2016: Passions and pains of Chinese football fans
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There is an idiom in Chinese, ru huo ru tu, which means “like a raging fire.” Thanks to modern technology, the passion for football is not only burning across France, it is burning in China too. How many people are watching the 2016 UEFA European Championship? I don’t know exactly, but I am one of them.
Looking at the television ratings though, last week nine out of the top ten programs on CCTV’s sports channel were Euro 2016 matches. On top was England versus Wales, which had more than 50 million Chinese fans in front of their screens. Many fans stayed up too late, sacrificing sleep. Some got into trouble. After the first night of competition, a Shanghai fan was hospitalized for myocardial infarction. He survived thanks to doctors at the Shanghai East Hospital.
Chinese like football very much. We watch the World Cup and European Championship games as though they were part of our own local holidays. We cry for the losers and the winners. We talk about the big-name players like they are our friends.
But every time we enjoy an excellent performance from a famed European team, when we turn off our TVs, we all try not to think about China’s own football teams, because this only brings despair. What a nightmare!
Too many scandals, too much humiliation! For so many years, we were not playing modern football — but an ugly game. But we can’t lose hope. The bad guys went to the jail, the environment of Chinese football is getting cleaned up and becoming more transparent. There is more good news. Big companies like Hisense and Suning are increasing their investments in the sport. It seems that step-by-step the “Dark Age” is coming to an end, and the light at the end of the tunnel won’t be very far away.
Our hope
I am a professor at the University of International Relations. This year one of my students wrote his bachelor’s thesis in English. The heading of the paper is The image of Chinese football in Spanish sport newspaper Marca. Let me quote his last paragraph:
“This paper encapsulated my sincere expectation for Chinese football. With the determination of the whole country, I firmly believe that one day, the words of President Xi will no longer be a Chinese Dream, but a refreshing reality. ‘First, I hope that China could be qualified for the World Cup, and then China could hold the World Cup event, eventually, China could bring World Cup back home.’”
I am supervisor of this student, his hope is my hope too.
The writer is associate professor in the culture and communications department and research fellow of the Sino-Denmark joint research center on China and International Relations, University of International Relations. Johnliu1963@yahoo.com. The views are his own.
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