ben sin - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

vengeance in china

really?

that popular, eh?

i been pitching a feature on the popularity of nba in Asia (specifically HK and China) to two places, both places are headed by female editors and the story has been rejected.

"I don't see the point or angle of this," they say.

What's there not to see? Basketball is fast becoming China's most popular sport and past time. The NBA is a professional sports league based in the US but are clearly eyeing the China market and China is embracing this more than they have embraced anything foreign.

As China's opening up, the timing is ripe for a movement. Coincidentally, the NBA happens to be like 80% black and most of them are "hip hop heads". So through basketball--black culture/hip hop is hitting China and the youth. You see cats throwing gang signs and wearing them hats crooked when Iverson was in town a few years ago. It's not a conscious effort for Chinese people to pick up black culture, it happens because basketball is hitting Asia huge and basketball will forever have ties to hip hop culture because of the players and the roots.

The rest of the pop culture shit we English-speaking cats are into, China dont give a crap about. They don't care about no one-trick pony British comedian or the latest shallow reality TV star from the US. But they go apeshit over NBA players. Kobe got the loudest reaction during the Olympic opening ceremony, over China's own athletes and government officials. Only non-Chinese athletes to get any reaction were NBA players. British joggers? Australian swimmers? American gymnast? CRICKETS. (Kobe's stunning ovation was so big that CNN.com mentioned it in their writeup of the ceremony)

How's this not a story? The NBA/China connection is bridging two cultures and race.

In the 70s the NBA was in danger of going out of business because mainstream America couldn't embrace a sport played by mostly Black people. Larry Legend and Magic Johnson saved the sport in the early 80s and Jordan took it to another level in the 90s. As recently as 1980 the NBA Finals were broadcasted on TAPE DELAY because of lack of popularity. Now the games are aired live in China with folks following religiously. The night in April when Jesus Shuttleworth went for 51 in Chicago (that Chicago/Boston series was EPIC)? Cats in China were up at 4am eating won tons and watching the game live. All these changes happened in just 30 years.

about 15 years ago 0 likes 8 comments 0 shares

Marie Jost

I thought the NBA was around before hip-hop. :-) NBA smemBA! College ball, especially Atlantic Coast Conference is where its at. Where do you think Jordan came from? UNC! Go Heels! Franklin St. will be packed with 100,000 local Tar Heel fans when we win the big kahuna (again)! Who cares about NBA players when you can sit next to the next NBA superstar in class, and you're on a first name basis. My very first college basketball game was the 1982 NCAA championship, the one that Jordan pulled out at the buzzer. You can't beat the passion of college ball. The Duke-Carolina rivalry cannot be matched in any sport. You watch your measly NBA games, I'm counting the days until the first Carolina game. They don't call the basketball arena the Dean Dome for 'nuthin here at Carolina!

about 15 years ago

ben sin

well, the story angle is the popularity of nba in asia—college ball is unknown here. i’m not on the college ball is better than pro ball wagon. many claim college games have more passion, a more diehard fanbase, better ball movement, better competition, etc. i’ll only agree with the first two. as far as the level of competition and just the overall level of play, the nba is heads and shoulders above ncaa ball. half of the cats in college ball wont make the league, and sometimes star college players who were unguardable before on campus can’t even get off the bench. 4 years back, the nation was intrigued by this jj reddick vs adam morrisson college battle. “its amazing that two white players are leading the nation in scoring!” said the media. all the hype in college ball were over reddick and morrion. the two are now warming benches in the league. they’d amaze their own mothers if they crack double digits in points btw, i envy you so much for being there during the 82 championship game. you witnessed, the greatest athlete of all time, in his first "moment".

about 15 years ago

ben sin

oh and duke/carolina can be matched by red sox/yankees... but im only a very minor baseball fan so yeah. for me its carolina/duke and celtics/lakers too.

about 15 years ago

ben sin

yes i agree that the globalization of mtv and the actual music of hip hop are major factors in bringing “black culture” to china. but what makes the nba scenario interesting is that it’s such an anomaly—no other sports league in the US have the same popularity in china. it’s JUST basketball they love there—they don’t care about American football or hockey. whereas for music—it’ not just hip hop that the Chinese have embraced through globalization of MTV, it’s every genre of music. they also love pop and rock. although there is no facts and figure to back this up, im pretty sure more chinese youths have been influenced by jordan or kobe than a rapper. what makes the story interesting, to me at least, is that it’s all happening inadvertently and subconsciously. the story isn’t “chinese people like hip hop”, but rather “chinese people like basketball and through idolizing NBA players they’ve subconsciously opened themselves up to black culture.” if someone decides to mimic a hip hop video and “act black”, it’s a conscious effort on their part to embrace and accept black culture. with basketball, it happens almost subconsciously.

about 15 years ago

Marie Jost

Just because you're dressing "Black" doesn't mean you have any understanding of the culture. I doubled over laughing the first time I saw (and heard) French rappers back in the mid-90s. The entire concept, the visuals and the rapping coming from these White boy wannabes, was pretty laughable. It definitely took them a few years to get the groove, though once the disaffected North African population figured out what this music could express, and brought some of their own musical tradition and attitude to it, it became something else entirely. I'm not sure China is going to be able to do it this way. The rhythms at the heart of African-American music, some musicologists would argue, came from North Africa and were imported to West Africa, where they were then brought to the New World with the slave trade (this is a very, very controversial theory, but there seems to be more than a little evidence to back this up), so North African/NA French rappers have a direct line to the cradle of this music that Asians just don't have. Just dressing like a rapper doesn't necessarily give you an understanding of the culture. Asia is so fashion-crazed, I think you need to dig deeper and see, especially on the Mainland where you don't have American born and raised Chinese returning home carrying an (African) American heritage influenced by their growing up in the US that their Mainland counterparts don't have to access to. Just wearing the outward trappings doesn't mean you understand anything of the culture. There is a term for this blind Chinese aping of all things Western, divorced in most cases from any understanding of what they mean, Occidentalism. There is a book by this title and I'm dying to read it. It is the flip of Orientalism and how Asia was treated for centuries by colonial powers in the West.

about 15 years ago

Marie Jost

Here is the book on Occidentalism that I hope to read soon. It sounds like it is a major contribution to the study of modern China. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847698750/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1594200084&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1AMRNNXKHFS4Q7NMX5JH

about 15 years ago

About

Learn More

Languages Spoken: english, cantonese
Location (City, Country): Hong Kong
Gender: male
Member Since: January 25, 2008