Tuesday, September 26, 2017

The NHL comes to Beijing

Arriving at the arena
China is an emerging market. There is more and more wealth in China and it is this wealth that not only provides my job but also opens up unique opportunities. This past week the NHL came to China for the first time (something the NBA has done quite a bit). The Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings played a game in Shanghai on Thursday and another in Beijing on Saturday. I decided to go to the Beijing game and I'm glad I did.
Outside the venue, there was what I can describe only as a carnival. There were booths with different hockey-related games and plenty of displays for taking photos. I didn't know about any of this ahead of time and so I wasn't there with enough time to participate (although even if I had known, I doubt I would have cared).
Before the game
Inside the arena, there was a program with playing cards (both entirely in Chinese) and a rally towel on each seat. Of course, the towels weren't for one particular team since neither was truly the home team. The surprising thing for me though was the number of foreigners present. I expected a number would come back as early as the subway I realized there were a lot more than I expected. Matter of fact, there was a group of about 6 to my left and a group of about 8 in front of me, plus a lot more not far away as well as throughout the arena. Almost all the people around me were Canadian (although sitting directly beside was a woman from South Africa), but the surprising thing was how many people appeared to have traveled quite a distance to come to the game. Both groups of Canadians (who didn't know each other) had traveled from Hefei, which according to Siri is about 550 miles away as the crow flies. One thing I found highly amusing is that in a crowd of 12,479 (If I'm remembering the number correctly), I was within shouting distance of one of my co-workers.
Before the game, they demonstrated the rules in both Chinese
and English. 
One of the 3 groups of cheerleaders. Much of their
presentation was very different from "typical" Chinese
culture.

The game was an interesting mix of East meets West. First, because Chinese people are not very familiar with hockey, there was an explanation of the rules complete with demonstrations (and presented bilingually). The early demonstrations were done with some of the people taking care of the ice, while the latter ones were performed by the mascots.  Throughout the game, there were also explanations displayed (only in Chinese) on the jumbotron. While the NHL certainly brought a lot of people with them (even the Zamboni drivers were not Chinese), there were two or three groups of cheerleaders who performed in a style that was decidedly NOT Chinese, but then there was also a performance that was very traditional Chinese with a woman in a traditional minority dress (I missed the announcement which said which one) and traditional Chinese instruments. The coolest example though of East meets West was in the opening "ceremonies." The Chinese are really big on bombastic over-the-top displays and the opening definitely fell into that category. Among other things, a multimedia presentation was projected onto the ice that included not only pictures of some of the players, but also video and pictures of historic Beijing landmarks. My words cannot do justice so I'll let you enjoy a video of part of the spectacle. I do apologize though. I have a new camera and didn't know the details of how it works. I took stills during the filming of the video and this interrupts it a bit. Nonetheless, I think it is enjoyable and so I hope you enjoy not only the video but my pictures of the venue, presentation, and game. By the way, if you're curious the game was a nailbiter that the Kings won 4-3 in a shootout.
Projected on the ice.

The dragon was definitely not typical to an NHL game.

Here come the Kings.

Here come the Canucks.













No comments:

Post a Comment