World Cup poster outside of a night club here in Yongchuan.
To say that I’ve been casually following the World Cup would be a huge understatement. Watching at least two and sometimes three games a day, reading match recaps along with stories related to the tournament and discussing them with friends and colleagues, the World Cup as undoubtedly taken over my life.
I’ve watched more football games (considering football is what the world calls soccer, it’s time I do the same) in the past 13 days than I have since the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The characters of the latest novel I’m drafting have been neglected, the book on modern philosophy that I was reading hasn’t been cracked open and thoughts outside of football have difficulty competing with those connected to the World Cup. Even as I sit in my study writing this piece, my mind is thinking about France’s must win game against South Africa which starts at 10pm (an hour from now).
Bags have developed underneath my eyes and I’m constantly yawning, yet I have trouble resisting the 2am match especially when powerhouses like Brazil, Spain and Argentina are playing (the problem with watching the 2am game is that it doesn’t finish until 4 and I get up for work at 7, thank goodness it’s the end of the school year and I don’t have to do too much actual teaching).
I've watched many games on my tiny laptop.
After a night of World Cup action, I crash on this futon that faces my laptop...I haven't slept on my bed in almost two weeks.
If the numbers of a recent poll conducted by Zhaopin.com (one of China’s largest HR service provider) are correct, I’m far from being the only one making the World Cup a priority in every day life. Close to 45 percent of 2 357 employees surveyed, are putting the World Cup ahead of work and 23.8 percent said they would take short holidays during the period from June 11 to July 12 (the World Cup ends on July 11). Almost 3 percent claimed to be ready to quit their jobs in order to fully enjoy the world’s most popular sporting event.
An editor of a Wuhan-based sports website, demonstrates his passion for the World Cup by holding up a sign that reads: "I will quit my job to watch the World Cup."
In a country where football is equally if not more popular than basketball (at my school, the overwhelming majority of male and female students prefer to play football), coverage of the World Cup is a big draw. According to FIFA, the world governing football body, China recorded the largest television audience in the world for the opening two days with an average 24 million viewers per game (unfortunately there are no reliable estimates on the number of Chinese watching the World Cup online, on cell phones or in public places such as restaurants, bars and parks).
Across China, World Cup enthusiasts have been rushing to sports stores in order to purchase any and everything related to it (people are paying around 150$ for an official World Cup football, but considering this is China, the world’s capital of fake products, one has to wonder if the ball is authentic).
Customers at a sports store surveying World Cup merchandise
Shopping websites such as Taobao.com have been enjoying a surge in football jersey sells. Fakes cost 50 yuan (7$) and authentic ones go for 1499 yuan (220$). Celebratory items such as the vuvuzela (about 90 percent of the vuvuzelas blown by soccer fans during the 2010 FIFA World Cup are made in China) and wigs (yes, wigs) have also been highly sought after online.
A Chinese fan holding a vuvuzela.
A Chinese World Cup fan wearing a wig.
“From January to May, the sales of wigs increased by one third compared with the same period last year. Most of the sales are to soccer fans,” wig seller Yang Bangyin, was quoted as saying in the China Daily.
Unfortunately, additional instances of World Cup fever in China will have to wait until another time. With kick-off fast approaching, I need to throw on my France T-shirt (yes, I’m supporting a dysfunctional team, what I can say I’m a fan of Thierry Henry, let’s just hope the coach plays him tonight) and make my way down by the river to watch the game at a restaurant. Clearly, I need to regain some control over my life, when does the World Cup end again?
Shawn, a colleague, and I watching the France/South-Africa game...it was not pretty.
