6 ms·

It seems really random that the Chinese are so into NBA. What next, Greeks being really into American gangsta rap music?

jogjayr 6y ago
Is it random they're into basketball or that they're into a foreign league? People follow lots of foreign soccer leagues, this is the same thing. Basketball is a quite popular sport internationally, unlike the 2 other big American inventions: baseball and football. Only a handful of countries outside the US have professional baseball leagues[1]. And other than Canada I don't know any country that has a professional football (gridiron) league. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball
- wolco 6y ago
  Rugby kinda fills the football hole and cricket is a good baseball replacement. Korea has baseball leagues. Mexico has football, Japan, Brazil, China and Poland.
bobthepanda 6y ago
Yao Ming was probably one of the first Chinese players of a foreign sport in a foreign league, and the NBA was very happy to promote this connection.
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  Yao Ming was also one of the elite centers in the NBA during his prime (just behind Shaq). A 7’6 tall guy that could hit a jumper and make all his free throws (couldn’t foul him in the paint, or he’d make you pay). Injuries did him in, but he was nothing short of amazing even if he didn’t come from China. Quick wiki research: There have been regular Houston Rockets games that had over 200 million viewers from China. The super bowl has about 100 million in comparison. At the scale we’re talking about, this will become a recurring issue across many industries as you simply can’t deny the power of the Chinese market.
Lammy 6y ago
It's spycraft, a way for US culture and influence to penetrate China. It's deliberate.
- nsxwolf 6y ago
  The blowback in the form of deleterious effects to US culture and free speech seems to outweigh any benefit we are getting.
- mmm_grayons 6y ago
  If it is, the spies are doing a terrible job of it, as the league is attempting to prevent Americans from espousing messages that offend China.
- miles 6y ago
  If anything, it seems more like spycraft for Chinese culture and influence to penetrate the U.S.: American Basketball vs. Chinese Hardball: Guess Who Won https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/asia/china-nba-censorship.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/asia/china-nba-cens... NBA Stars Study Hollywood’s Playbook in China https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-stars-study-hollywoods-playbook-in-china-11570852864 https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-stars-study-hollywoods-play... NBA, 'South Park' episodes spotlight Hollywood's China dilemma https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hollywood/nba-south-park-episodes-spotlight-hollywoods-china-dilemma-idUSKBN1WP1BJ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hollywood/nba-south... ‘South Park’ creators issue mocking ‘apology’ after China reportedly bans sitcom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KCVj_v0ik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KCVj_v0ik Band in China https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china
  - Lammy 6y ago
    How many Chinese-broadcast basketball games are American basketball fans watching? :)
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  Spycraft is covert. Replacing the culture of a nation with one's own is imperialism. A couple centuries ago it used to be done by force. Now it's done via economic means. It's interesting how China is turning the globalist policies of developed countries into power. The government bans a cartoon character due to memes and suddenly lots of huge companies start censoring themselves out of fear. The US may have freedom of speech but it doesn't matter if China is the bigger market.
mdreid 6y ago
China has a long history with basketball. It was one of few western sports that was explicitly kept during the Cultural Revolution. I've read that teamwork and communal nature of the game appealed to Chinese leadership. If you visit China, you'll see recreational basketball courts everywhere. There are courts by the airport, courts outside the Forbidden Palace, etc. Then with an NBA focused on expanding its international fan base and Yao Ming, popularity grew even more.
- creato 6y ago
  > I've read that teamwork and communal nature of the game appealed to Chinese leadership. How is basketball different from almost any team sport in this regard?
  - whoevercares 6y ago
    Every school in China has a Basketball field. Not common for other team sports. Edit: Japanese comic “slum dunk” has a huge cultural impact to those were born around 90s. NBA starts broadcasting to China around 95, Jordan, Iverson, Kobe became super idol since then. Not to mention Yao Ming. Also China team sports is pretty weak, only volleyball and basketball stands out(China’s soccer team suck, tell that to any Chinese and they will agree lol)
  - magicsmoke 6y ago
    Cheap to play and doesn't take up as much space as soccer, so good for urban environments. Same reason why basketball is so popular in US inner cities.
chishaku 6y ago
It's not anymore random than people from the US using products made in China. The distribution of American cultural exports is far reaching. Gangsta rap came to Greece in 1997... [0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_hip_hop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_hip_hop
pjc50 6y ago
Are Americans unaware of how influential their own cultural export is? Have you not noticed how in every city you can find people wearing Yankees baseball caps with that characteristic logo? Most countries have rappers now, emulating the style. If there's a village out there that doesn't buy American cultural products, there is someone whose job it is to sell it to them.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  I think a lot of Americans are unaware of how much Hollywood has become an export business, such that a movie can kind of flop in the US and be a spectacular success elsewhere. My impression is that has been the case for quite a while.
matwood 6y ago
Basketball requires less space than many other games, and more easily scales from one person to many. The low space requirement makes it a very friendly game for cities where space is often a premium.

jogjayr 6y ago

Is it random they're into basketball or that they're into a foreign league? People follow lots of foreign soccer leagues, this is the same thing. Basketball is a quite popular sport internationally, unlike the 2 other big American inventions: baseball and football. Only a handful of countries outside the US have professional baseball leagues[1]. And other than Canada I don't know any country that has a professional football (gridiron) league. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_baseball

wolco 6y ago
Rugby kinda fills the football hole and cricket is a good baseball replacement. Korea has baseball leagues. Mexico has football, Japan, Brazil, China and Poland.

bobthepanda 6y ago

Yao Ming was probably one of the first Chinese players of a foreign sport in a foreign league, and the NBA was very happy to promote this connection.

runawaybottle 6y ago
Yao Ming was also one of the elite centers in the NBA during his prime (just behind Shaq). A 7’6 tall guy that could hit a jumper and make all his free throws (couldn’t foul him in the paint, or he’d make you pay). Injuries did him in, but he was nothing short of amazing even if he didn’t come from China. Quick wiki research: There have been regular Houston Rockets games that had over 200 million viewers from China. The super bowl has about 100 million in comparison. At the scale we’re talking about, this will become a recurring issue across many industries as you simply can’t deny the power of the Chinese market.

Lammy 6y ago

It's spycraft, a way for US culture and influence to penetrate China. It's deliberate.

nsxwolf 6y ago
The blowback in the form of deleterious effects to US culture and free speech seems to outweigh any benefit we are getting.
mmm_grayons 6y ago
If it is, the spies are doing a terrible job of it, as the league is attempting to prevent Americans from espousing messages that offend China.
miles 6y ago
If anything, it seems more like spycraft for Chinese culture and influence to penetrate the U.S.: American Basketball vs. Chinese Hardball: Guess Who Won https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/asia/china-nba-censorship.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/asia/china-nba-cens... NBA Stars Study Hollywood’s Playbook in China https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-stars-study-hollywoods-playbook-in-china-11570852864 https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-stars-study-hollywoods-play... NBA, 'South Park' episodes spotlight Hollywood's China dilemma https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hollywood/nba-south-park-episodes-spotlight-hollywoods-china-dilemma-idUSKBN1WP1BJ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hollywood/nba-south... ‘South Park’ creators issue mocking ‘apology’ after China reportedly bans sitcom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KCVj_v0ik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KCVj_v0ik Band in China https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china https://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s23e02-band-in-china
- Lammy 6y ago
  How many Chinese-broadcast basketball games are American basketball fans watching? :)
matheusmoreira 6y ago
Spycraft is covert. Replacing the culture of a nation with one's own is imperialism. A couple centuries ago it used to be done by force. Now it's done via economic means. It's interesting how China is turning the globalist policies of developed countries into power. The government bans a cartoon character due to memes and suddenly lots of huge companies start censoring themselves out of fear. The US may have freedom of speech but it doesn't matter if China is the bigger market.

mdreid 6y ago

China has a long history with basketball. It was one of few western sports that was explicitly kept during the Cultural Revolution. I've read that teamwork and communal nature of the game appealed to Chinese leadership. If you visit China, you'll see recreational basketball courts everywhere. There are courts by the airport, courts outside the Forbidden Palace, etc. Then with an NBA focused on expanding its international fan base and Yao Ming, popularity grew even more.

creato 6y ago
> I've read that teamwork and communal nature of the game appealed to Chinese leadership. How is basketball different from almost any team sport in this regard?
- whoevercares 6y ago
  Every school in China has a Basketball field. Not common for other team sports. Edit: Japanese comic “slum dunk” has a huge cultural impact to those were born around 90s. NBA starts broadcasting to China around 95, Jordan, Iverson, Kobe became super idol since then. Not to mention Yao Ming. Also China team sports is pretty weak, only volleyball and basketball stands out(China’s soccer team suck, tell that to any Chinese and they will agree lol)
- magicsmoke 6y ago
  Cheap to play and doesn't take up as much space as soccer, so good for urban environments. Same reason why basketball is so popular in US inner cities.

chishaku 6y ago

It's not anymore random than people from the US using products made in China. The distribution of American cultural exports is far reaching. Gangsta rap came to Greece in 1997... [0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_hip_hop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_hip_hop

pjc50 6y ago

Are Americans unaware of how influential their own cultural export is? Have you not noticed how in every city you can find people wearing Yankees baseball caps with that characteristic logo? Most countries have rappers now, emulating the style. If there's a village out there that doesn't buy American cultural products, there is someone whose job it is to sell it to them.

perl4ever 6y ago
I think a lot of Americans are unaware of how much Hollywood has become an export business, such that a movie can kind of flop in the US and be a spectacular success elsewhere. My impression is that has been the case for quite a while.

matwood 6y ago

Basketball requires less space than many other games, and more easily scales from one person to many. The low space requirement makes it a very friendly game for cities where space is often a premium.