Xu Guoqi: Where Are China’s Soccer Stars?
[Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong, is the author of “Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008,” “China and the Great War” and the forthcoming “Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese workers and the Great War.”]
The total population of this year’s world cup countries is about 1.5 billion. Why then is China — a nation of 1.3 billion — not able to produce a 11-member team to the World Cup when even its destitute neighbor, North Korea, has managed to be there this year?
China is obviously embarrassed about its World Cup failure. The United States, which China would like to surpass politically and economically, has done quite well at the World Cup even though soccer is far from being the most popular sport in the country....
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The total population of this year’s world cup countries is about 1.5 billion. Why then is China — a nation of 1.3 billion — not able to produce a 11-member team to the World Cup when even its destitute neighbor, North Korea, has managed to be there this year?
China is obviously embarrassed about its World Cup failure. The United States, which China would like to surpass politically and economically, has done quite well at the World Cup even though soccer is far from being the most popular sport in the country....