Sunday, May 8, 2011

Chinese people love basketball

Posters like one below are found everywhere in Chinese cities. But why do the Chinese people love basketball so much?

The popularity of NBA is believed to have surged in China after Yao Ming was selected as the first overall pick in 2002 NBA draft. It is estimated that his first NBA game attracted more than 200 million viewers in China. In 2008, the number of NBA fans in China was estimated to be around 450 million, and 300 million people were estimated to play basketball in China. 20% of all NBA.com traffic comes from China, and NBA was the 10th most popular search on Google in China.

So let’s learn how to say the most popular sports in China in Chinese language

(lán):basket

(qiú):ball

篮球(lánqiú): basketball


Here are few other sports involving a (qiú):

足球(zúqiú): soccer/football

橄榄球(gǎnlǎnqiú): American football

排球(páiqiú): volleyball

冰球(bīngqiú): ice hockey

乒乓球(pīngpāng qiú): ping pong/table tennis

网球(wǎngqiú): tennis

Feel free to leave a comment and add your favorite sports to this list.

7 comments:

  1. China is also very popular for its pino pong skills. If you check out the ping pong ratings, you will notice that they are actually almost all Chinese. Apparently elmost every 3rd Chinese person had played it.
    I do not even know why are they so into it, but it seems to be super popular there.

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  2. You make a very good point Ante.

    Here is an interesting article on the rising popularity of ping pong in the US

    http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_20/b4228082667291.htm?chan=magazine+channel_etc.

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  3. There was an article on BBC which provides a brief history of table tennis in China:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/table_tennis/13341282.stm

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  4. I should go play basketball in China. I hope everyone is routing against the Miami Heat. Who are the most popular players in China?

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  5. There was an article on BBC this week which gives a brief account of the rise and importance of table tennis in China:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/table_tennis/13341282.stm

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  6. And here is an interesting article on the rising popularity of ping pong in the US

    http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_20/b4228082667291.htm

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  7. Spearing, Yao Ming has to be the most popular NBA player in China. This was the 2009 rank based on jersey sales

    Kobe Bryant
    Kevin Garnett
    Tracy McGrady
    Paul Pierce
    Allen Iverson

    http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-05/18/content_7786782.htm

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