Chinese President Xi Jinping’s supposed love of The Beautiful Game runs so deep that state media have even run cartoons of him depicting his futbol passion. But how much does he really like the sport?
Exhibit A.
Continue reading How much does Xi Jinping really like soccer?
A quick look at the General Classification (GC) for this year’s Tour de France has Chinese debutant Ji Cheng in 193rd place out of 196 riders still in the race, a massive 25’25” off the pace after just three stages.
The glut of “China isn’t at the World Cup, but…” articles has slowed (there is only so much to say, after all), though these pictures of President Xi Jinping are doing the rounds (h/t @niubi), unthinkable to depict the President in cartoon form just a few years ago.
Continue reading Weekly Wrap: Xi Jinping, Tour de France, Wimbledon, football $$
每届世界杯上都会出现一批新的英雄还有新的恶棍，但是这一届世界杯上，有个人却完美地将这两个角色融合在了一起。
The Chinese are watching the World Cup in their droves, with some staying up so late that three people have now reportedly died from World Cup-related sleep deprivation. 118 million posts about the World Cup were written between June 12-17, but FIFA, in all its infinite wisdom, has no official online presence in China. Here’s more:
现如今，人们已经很难听见对国际足联的褒奖——从可疑的选票和糟糕的规则制定，到现在如履薄冰的反腐改革。更可悲的是，这些看似不可思议的骂声会因国际足联主席布拉特的当权而永无止境。
The Chinese are getting up in their millions to watch the World Cup, and as expected Brazilian Neymar is becoming one of the main stories (this piece on Neymar’s China’s strategy is worth another look). But other things are happening too. Here’s a selection of interesting stories from the past few days (the first two of which feature some special China Sports Insider insight!).
Continue reading Weekly Wrap: Chinese takes on Wimbledon, sailing and golf
This is exactly what the PGA Tour – and Nike – would have hoped for when it launched its China Series earlier this year. 27-year-old Shanxi native Zhang Xinjun, who signed with Nike almost exactly a year ago alongside 19-year-old Li Haotong, finally won a tournament after a succession of near misses. He now leads the overall standings in the race to win one of five spots for next year’s US-based Web.com Tour, itself the feeder of the PGA Tour.
Stories started to spread on Monday that Chinese home appliance chain Suning was set to buy a stake in Spanish megaclub Barcelona. If true, it would have blown news of Alibaba buying a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande out of the water.
Continue reading Suning’s Barca deal continues Chinese trend
China won’t be playing in Brazil – they have appeared at a World Cup just once and failed to score a goal – but millions will stay up late to watch the games – starting this Friday at 4 am when Croatia kicks off against the host nation in São Paulo. Here are 10 things in this year’s World Cup with a Chinese connection. Continue reading The World Cup with Chinese characteristics
