Ding Junhui and snooker hot in China, China Daily sports coverage lukewarm
Tuesday, 6th April 2010 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
This was supposed to be a post about Ding Junhui, China's popular snooker sensation, and his performance in the finals at the past weekend's China Open. Instead, it's a post about something that's bothered me for a long time—sports coverage on China Daily's Web site.Since I'm not in China at the moment, and therefore couldn't watch CCTV-5, I went online Monday to find out how Ding had fared over the weekend. He played his way into the semis Friday, and beat Mark Allen in the semis Saturday. He lost the final to Welshman Mark Williams, but to look at China Daily's online sports page Monday, you would think he hadn't played it yet:The latest news there was stuck on last Thursday, Ding's birthday and the day he won his second round game.
As the official state-run English-language newspaper, China Daily isn't somewhere that those in the know go for hard-hitting investigative journalism—but four days behing on something as innocuous as a snooker tournament? By the time they get the news up, will anyone who cares about it not know already? And it's not unusual for China Daily's coverage to lag like that.
China Daily's biggest online competitor, Xinhua, has better sports coverage, and did have up-to-date news from Beijing:
And if you're wondering why we're even talking about snooker, it's because the game has quite a following in China. As Sam Pearson wrote in a post here in December, "The increasingly popular [cue] sports have a rare combination of Chinese world beaters, government support, affordability, a fashionable image and excellent domestic TV coverage." (Pot the Reds: Cue sports in China). Ding Junhui, 24, is the face of snooker in China, having burst onto the scene with big wins in 2005. He's even inspired the creation of an animated TV series based on the adventures of a young Ding in snooker competitions. The game ranked fourth in sports television broadcast hours in 2009, after soccer, basketball and tennis, according to TNS Sport China. And Ding is sponsored by Mengniu Dairy, one of China's biggest consumer goods companies.
Tags: China Daily, Ding Junhui, snooker, sports media, Xinhua
Why is Anna Kournikova on the cover of SI China?
Tuesday, 22nd July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (4)
"寻找库娃 (Searching for Kournikova)"
Anna Kournikova is pretty, and so is SI China (体育画报). But the only thing harder than finding a media kiosk in Beijing that sells the magazine is finding Kournikova on a tennis court. With the Olympics countdown clocks all over the capital now inside of 20 days, is it really time for a "Where are they now?" story? The cover line reads: "Searching for Kournikova." Even in a country of 1.3 billion people, it's pretty safe to say that no one is.
Our simple theory: The intended cover boy or girl pulled out at the last minute. Someone at SI China suggested using its US sister magazine's Rafael Nadal shots for the cover. But the boss pointed out that SI China's runaway best-selling issue is the swimsuit issue, so the art department called the US office asking for the next best thing. Thus did an irrelevant athlete appear on newsstands amidst China's countdown to its most exciting sports moment.
The guy who we buy our magazines from in Beijing's Central Business District keeps it simple. Here's a translation of our conversation with him:
CST: What is she doing on the cover?
News guy: What sport does she play? Is she in the Olympics?
CST: She plays tennis. And she's not good.
News guy: She doesn't have to be good. She's pretty! Don't forget your Titan [sports newspaper].
Thank you, SI, for bringing to China the best in sports media.
Tags: Anna Kournikova, SI China, sports media, tennis