Tobias Zuser, Hong Kong Baptist University
This year a young female football coach from Hong Kong made history when she became the first woman ever to lead a men’s team to a national title. The story of Chan Yuen-ting’s success is widely framed as a major step for women who take on managerial roles in male-dominated sports. Continue reading
How Hong Kong’s land policies imperil arts and sports development
New recreation and cultural facilities face an uphill battle in Hong Kong, squeezed by a Government reliant on land lease revenues, Tobias Zuser writes.
China’s grand football plan falls foul as fans rebel
China’s ambitious plans to invest heavily in football and secure a World Cup were missing one essential ingredient – how to respond to angry fans disappointed at the national team’s failure. Simon Chadwick takes a look at what tactics China may employ to get back in the game after the humiliation of shock back-to-back losses.
In a widely criticized article, the British tabloid magazine “The Sun” lashed out at the Chinese Super League, calling it a “fakeway” and claiming that its development is in fact impeded by idiosyncrasies of Chinese culture. Continue reading
Dr. Geoff Watson (School of Humanities, Massey University) published a journal article in 2011 on the Chinese football tour to New Zealand that took place in 1924. A worthwhile read!
Abstract: The Chinese Universities Soccer team, in the words of James Ng, ‘brought to New Zealand a more dynamic image of China’, attracting large crowds and raising the profile of a then minor sport. For historians, the presence of a Chinese team playing the form of soccer codified in nineteenth century Britain, affords interesting insights into issues of race, class and imperialism in New Zealand. The team was generally portrayed in a positive light, in contrast to the generally negative representations of Asians in New Zealand. The tour has received some coverage in James Ng’s work and histories of New Zealand soccer but merits a more detailed examination.3 The article commences with a discussion of the background to the tour and the Chinese community in New Zealand before analysing how the touring team was represented to New Zealanders.
Source: New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 13, 2 (December 2011): 1-17
Free access: http://www.nzasia.org.nz/journal/jas_dec2011_watson.pdf
In 1924 the so called “Chinese Universities Football Team” visited New Zealand for a friendly exhibition tour. The well planned and thoroughly documented trip was a repetition of a similar excursion to Australia that took place just one year earlier.
The tour lasted from mid July until the end of September, during which the Chinese team took part in 22 matches, 18 of them against local opponents and 4 against a New Zealand selection. The biggest crowd – reportedly around 28,000 people – showed up on August 9th in Auckland. Continue reading
(originally published in Europe-China Cultural Compass) The West is complaining. European countries struggle with their bond credit rating and, after the recent financial crisis, the latest trend has become reducing nonessential expenses. But among all the bad news about bankrupt states and rising unemployment, just one thing seems stable: China’s annual GDP growth rate. With the arts so dependent on public (Europe) or private (US) support, they are always among the first to suffer from recession or financial restructuring. Even well-known institutions like state operas need to make substantial efficiency improvements, as they manage on standstill grants with no allowance for inflation and rising costs. Continue reading