Fans love football despite the absence of China at the World Cup OPEN ADMIRATION: At an exhibition in Beijing, a football fan gazes at the FIFA World Cup Trophy, which China has begun to covet since the 1950s but has never been close to winning
If his boss were not a football fan, Liu Chenguang, 28, might have to quit his job to watch the televised World Cup games. Liu works for a private firm in Beijing. “It is obviously unrealistic to ask my boss for a month’s leave just to watch football at home,” he said. “Quitting seemed a more practical choice.”
To Liu’s surprise, he didn’t have to take this drastic measure as his boss, Lin Yuan, introduced flexible work time during the World Cup. While allowing employees to work shifts, he tends to turn a blind eye when employees come to work late, leave early or are absent without asking for leaves.
Because of the time difference between China and Germany, most of the matches are broadcast live on TV in China after 9 p.m. Some of them can be as late as 3 a.m. The matches between teams competing for the final eight are not shown to Chinese audiences until 11 p.m., whereas the semi-finals are set to air at 3 a.m. Liu has his heart set on watching all the games live, instead of watching replays or checking results on the Internet the next morning.
Football fans like Liu, who would rather give up his job than miss the World Cup, and employers like Lin, who grant employees so much freedom, may only represent a small fraction of the Chinese corporate world. Most Chinese fans are no different from their foreign counterparts, each having a favorite team and player and memories of great football moments. Being unable to make the long trek to Germany, most fans can only perch in front of TVs in the wee hours.
This is taking its toll on work efficiency, not only because of the late hours, but also as a direct result of team scores. “A method that will transform the woes of ‘World Cup Syndrome’ to our favor is to take this opportunity to motivate the employees and enhance the solidarity of the company,” Lin said proudly. “We have done a good job in this respect.”
Adoring fans
Lin, 44, who still remembers the moment when he fell in love with the World Cup, seemed to understand the craziness of other fans. “I think June 26, 1978, was a memorable day for me and many Chinese football fans,” he said.
That was the day when the World Cup was first televised on the Chinese mainland, although only one match--the final between Argentina and the Netherlands--was shown to the audience. “Late that night, my father took me to a classroom in Peking University where people were crammed in front of a black-and-white TV set,” he said.
What impressed him the most was the players’ awesome mastery of the ball. Also, he said it was the first time that he had ever seen a man--the No. 10 Argentine player--with long hair.
“The World Cup captivated many Chinese,” he said, adding that Chinese football fans should be grateful to the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, a keen lover of football, as it was under his directive that China televised the World Cup that year.
That very year witnessed the advent of China’s reform and opening-up policy. Before, like everything else, the Chinese football community was isolated from the world, with the World Cup branded a “bourgeois vice.” In 1974, when China partially opened its doors, the stigma attached to the event had yet to be removed. The Chinese team led by Coach Nian Weisi was playing in Yugoslavia when the 1974 World Cup kicked off. Nian, who had never watched the World Cup in his decades-long football career, was anxious to observe the tournament live on TV together with his team. However, his hope was dashed as the International Department of the National Sports Commission sent an urgent telegram, ordering the Chinese team “not to support the FIFA.”
In 1957, Nian, then a football player on the Chinese national team, made the first attempt to enter the World Cup together with his fellow players, most of whom had just returned to China after a two-year training stint in Hungary, the runner-up of the 1954 World Cup. This initiative made the international football widely known to Chinese football lovers. However, in the 20 years that followed, China shut itself off from the international football community.
It did not return to the World Cup until 1981, when the Chinese team took part in its preliminary competitions. The skillful and aggressive Chinese players performed well. More remarkably, they won a game against Saudi Arabia 4:2, coming back from a two-goal deficit. In the excitement Chinese college students burned their quilts and threw them out of campus windows. Many secondary schools adopted the same essay topic in their final exams several days later--“From 0:2 to 4:2.” The Chinese team coming so close to qualifying for the finals exhilarated all Chinese football fans. From then on, qualifying for the World Cup became a national obsession.
“The Chinese love of football and the World Cup began at a time when there were almost no means of recreation in China, when the Chinese football players were paid a fixed salary and benefits on an egalitarian basis and when the Chinese people had not as many desires as they do today,” said Hong Feng, a football fan and writer. “It seemed that the football pitch was the only place to release their passion.”
World Cup changed lives
OLé OLé OLé: Football fans cheer for their favorite team in a hotel in Zhengzhou during the World Cup in late June 2006
China Central Television (CCTV), the national broadcaster, started to televise all World Cup final games in 1982. “I heard that a Brazilian fan smashed his TV set after hearing news that Brazil lost a game in the 1982 World Cup,” recalled Lin Xi, a 36-year-old football fan in Beijing. “I couldn’t believe it, because at that time, my family and my neighbors didn’t even own a TV set.”
Lin’s father did not make up his mind to buy the family a TV set until the next World Cup four years later. “As a boy of 12, I saw a whole new world through the World Cup, not just football matches,” he said.
According to him, the prime reason why he and his contemporaries love the World Cup is that they grew up with it. “The World Cup influenced us as we grew up,” he said. “It is one of the most important events that we have taken part in and a marvelous experience in our lives.”
Like Lin, all football fans Beijing Review interviewed spoke highly of the role the World Cup has played in their lives, with many fans underscoring the fact that the World Cup can give them courage, strength and significant revelations.
“The World Cup imbues us with passion and self-esteem and reminds us not to give up,” said Wang Min, a college graduate who is hunting for a job in Beijing. He believes this is one of the most fundamental reasons why people love the World Cup against a backdrop of daily stress in the modern world.
During this current World Cup season, Yang Wang, an editor with China’s leading sports journal Titan Sports, was extremely busy. Despite the tiring schedule, he is apparently enjoying his work. “The World Cup exerts ever-greater influence on me as I become addicted to it,” he said.
He is thankful to football as it helped him pull through the “most frustrating days” of his life. When he failed the college entrance exam in 1994, he asked for a football from his parents, believing football was the only thing that could soothe his pain. The next year, he passed the exam and went to college. After graduation, he landed a job with Titan Sports, realizing his childhood dream of “living with football all day, every day.”
Wan Bei, a semiconductor engineer, started to watch World Cup games in 1998. For him, the World Cup just meant fashion at the beginning. However, as he tried to keep up with the fashion trend, he developed a “special bond” with the tournament. In his opinion, the World Cup, an event that is celebrated by people from various cultural backgrounds, unites the entire world. “Watching the World Cup gives me an intense feeling of being a global citizen, a feeling that broadens my vision in an imperceptible way,” he said.
“Given the lack of faith in society today, I’m proud that the World Cup offers me spiritual support,” affirmed Zhu Guanlin, a lobby manager of a five-star hotel in Beijing. “The World Cup is surely affecting our characters. In a team, some worship heroism while others stress teamwork and collaboration. The football pitch is like the real world, where different people play different roles. We can all find a place in it and therefore love the game even more.”
Transcending gender
“Women don’t like football” must be the most foolish utterance made by some rash male football fans and players, claimed Zhao Xi, a Web writer. She thinks it unimaginable that players get no cheers from frantic female fans. In addition, she said the feminists are likely to seize this opportunity to show they are equal to men.
Many Chinese girls first take an interest in football when they happen to see the exciting crop of players on TV, then learn the rules of the game and finally fall in love with the sport. In their eyes, romance, passion, adventure, fashion and sex appeal are elements that dominate the ideal football world.
Fei Lengcui, a well-known female football fan, introduced herself by saying, “I’m a crazy football fan and I’m always open about my obsession with football.” Born in July 1982, she took the college entrance exam during the World Cup season in 1998. Despite the tight school schedule before the exam, she managed to watch the games. “A female friend of mine, who is also a football fan, told me that the World Cup is held every four years but the college entrance examination is held each year and therefore we should put the World Cup first. So the two of us found ourselves packed among sweaty male fans, our eyes glued to the TV screen,” she recalled.
Fei, who ran an online forum named “Pretty Girls Watching Football” a couple of years ago, is an ardent Argentina fan. “Like literature, music and painting, football is as indispensable to me as salt and water. All of them offer me a perspective to appreciate artistic beauty.”
“I’m impressed by the perfect cooperation and the incredible rapport among the team members. I think this is the charm of football.”
Unlike years ago, women football fans are no longer unique in China today. They are a group of elegant girls, rather than stereotyped tomboys, with many sharing Fei’s views.
Hu Mei, a female movie director, believes there are no gender differences involved when it comes to watching football. “When you are preoccupied with something, the gender differences usually go unnoticed. As a director, I think I know about this.” Although she is conscious about her womanly role in everyday life, she cannot help yelling and shouting like males when watching football matches.
“When I watch football, I feel the world is becoming a more equal and democratic place,” mused writer Xu Kun. She argues males and females watch football for the same reason-seeking pleasure. However, she believes females tend to pay greater attention on the physical attractiveness of their idols than the skills of the players.