17 minute read
THE NATION
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The Buzz P08 Chinese Corner P09
By Lars James Hamer and Ned Kelly
CHINA CURRENTS
Tragedy struck on Monday, March 21, when China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 with 132 people on board crashed in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, South China.
The Flight China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kunming, Yunnan, to Guangzhou, Guangdong.
The aircraft departed from Kunming Changshui International Airport for Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 1.15pm China Standard Time (CST). It was due to land at 3.05pm.
The Crash
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said that contact with the aircraft was lost over the city of Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
At 2.22pm CST, while preparing to descend into Guangzhou, the aircraft entered a sudden steep descent, from 8,900 meters (29,100 feet) to 983 meters (3,225 feet) in three minutes, with a descent rate of 2,629 meters (8,625 feet) per minute, according to flight data recorded by Flightradar24.
The plane was caught on film by the CCTV of a local mining company, with footage depicting it rapidly descending, almost vertically.
The aircraft crashed in the mountainous regions of Teng County at 560 kilometers per hour at about 2.38pm, erupting into a fireball and causing fires to break out in the surrounding forest.
Wuzhou Fire and Rescue Department reported that 450 firefighters were dispatched to the scene of the accident. Firefighters from nearby Tangbu Town, as well Guilin, Beihai, Hezhou, Laibin and Hechi were brought in to help with the operation. The fires were extinguished at around 5.25pm.
Rescue crews initially had difficulty accessing the site because of the fires. By the evening, 117 rescuers of a total of 650 dispatched had managed to gain access to it.
The Passengers and Crew There were a total of 132 people on board the flight – 123 passengers and 9 crew members – according to the CAAC. All persons on board were confimed to have died on March 27.
All 123 passengers and the crew memebers were Chinese, according to China Central Television (CCTV).
It was initially reported that 133 people were on board the aircraft but one fortunate soul canceled her flight.
The 133rd Passenger The passenger who had not boarded the flight, Ms. Xin, was contacted by reporters and issued the following statement:
“There are many people who have stolen the screenshot of my flight information, but they are not me. They used my flight information to pretend to be me, saying that they were on this flight and did not board the plane for various reasons. This is not the case.“
“There are many false reports on the internet now, and many people have personally attacked me. Maybe because I am a Taobao shopkeeper. But my mood is very sad and complicated.“
“I want to clear this matter up. I hope people will pray for our compatriots on the flight instead of focusing on me.”
The Search
So far, the search has found human remains, personal items of the victims, plane debris and both of the aircraft’s black boxes.
Officials have stated that the point of impact has been largely determined. However, after discovering a 1.3 meter long, 10 centimeter wide piece of debris over a kilometer away from this point, the search area was expanded by 1.5 times its original size.
Continuous rainfall made the search difficult and local fire crews warned of the risk of small-scale landslides.
The first black box was found on March 23. It is used for recording audio in the cockpit. As of press time, officials in Beijing are trying to extract its data. However, Chinese officials have stated that the storage cell for the black box could be damaged.
The second black box, which is used for tracking data, such as the planes movement, was found on March 27. The data extracted from the second box will tell officials what the plane's movement looked like before the crash.
RANDOM NUMBER
30…
… is the number of minutes it takes to get a result using China’s newly developed at-home testing kit for COVID-19.
Prior to the kits becoming available, anyone who wanted to get a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 had to go to a designated testing site. Tests are not difficult to book, relatively cheap and offer results within 1-2 days. However, this new at-home testing could be a real game-changer in dealing with COVID-19.
According to Xinhua, the kit is the size of a lighter and costs around RMB100. To get a result, users have to use the kit to take a nose swab sample. Sixth Tone reports that the kits will complement tests carried out at designated locations. Anyone who tests positive using the kit should report the result to their local community.
The testing kit was developed by West China Hospital, an institution affiliated with Sichuan University in southwest China.
Mass testing and targeted lockdowns are still common across China as the government imposes its ‘dynamic zero-COVID’ strategy.
Could at-home test kits help ease restrictions? We’ll wait and see.
DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?
Zeng Xiaolian
The 83-year-old biological artist has produced over 2,000 nature-focused paintings during his distinguished career.
Zeng spent 40 years with the Kunming Institute of Botany in China’s southwest Yunnan province, an institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His almost lifelike paintings depict birds, flowers, plants, fungi and more.
China Daily reports that 36 of his paintings will be shown at the Shanghai Center of Photography until May 22. The exhibition theme is the wealth of nature and the cycle of botanical life.
According to Zeng, the hardest part of biological art is not lifelike depiction, but “showing the eagerness to survive of every petal and leaf in different environments.”
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
… said 13-year-old Shanghai local Wendy Wen.
Wen is not just any 13-year-old. She recently composed a symphony which was performed on March 5 by the New York Philharmonic, as reported by Global Times.
The performance by one of the world’s oldest symphony orchestras was part of a young people’s concert, celebrating young composers from around the world.
Wen’s piece entitled ‘Lady Liberty in a Thunderstorm’ was intended to mark more than 100 years of women’s suffrage in the United States. Women in the US gained the right to vote back in 1920.
Wen gets her musical talent from her father and composer, Wen Deqing. At such a young age, his daughter looks like she could be on a path to musical greatness.
CHINESE CORNER
Paying Utility Bills in Wechat
As you might already know, you can connect your utility bills to your WeChat account for a convenient way to make payments ( 生活缴费 shēnghuó jiǎofèi). You can choose to pay your bills manually every month or turn on automatic payments ( 自动缴费 zìdòng jiǎofèi).
Paying Your Utility Bills
You can top up your utility bills in the WeChat Top-Up Center.
生活缴费
shēnghuó jiǎofèi paying utility bills
Topping Up Your Phone
Similarly, you can top up your phone in the WeChat Top-Up Center.
水费
shuǐfèi water bill
电费
diànfèi electricity bill
煤气费
méiqìfèi gas bill
手机充值
shǒujī chōngzhí mobile top-up
充话费
chōng huàfèi to pay the phone bill
充流量
chōng liúliàng to buy internet data
You can also choose to pay manually or turn on automatic payments ( 自动充 zìdòng chōng).
To learn more phrases and practice with Chinese teachers, scan the QR code:
Exploring China’s Cricket Scene
By Alistair Baker-Brian
As the “second most popular sport on the planet,” cricket is truly a global game, although you might not know that if you looked at its popularity in China.
If you’re not familiar with cricket – can’t tell your offside from your legside, T20 from test matches or batting from bowling – well… get Googling because there’s really no explaining all that here.
Cricket is often quoted as having a global fanbase of 2.5 billion people, though the exact source of this figure is a little unclear – second only to soccer with 3.5 billion fans.
However, over recent decades, the sport’s progress in the potentially lucrative Chinese market has been modest, to put it diplomatically. Hong Kong, with its history as a British colony before returning to China, has something of a stronger cricketing scene compared to the Chinese mainland.
In fact, the word “China” is better associated among cricket enthusiasts with a specific and somewhat unorthodox bowling technique (the actual term could be deemed offensive).
Getting an accurate number on how many people in China play cricket is not easy. The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s world governing body, say there were around 80,000 people playing cricket in the Middle Kingdom, as reported by DW News. Around half of these were estimated to be women.
This figure is a little over two years old and things may have changed since that time. It’s also not clear if this figure includes solely Chinese nationals or also includes those from China’s expat cricketing community.
Either way, the number represents a tiny fraction of China’s vast population.
In September, Hangzhou will host the 2022 Asian Games with cricket included on the Games’ schedule. It might not be the same high standard as test cricket or the World Cup, but it is international cricket nonetheless; can this be anything other than positive for cricket in China?
With the Games only a few months away, we thought now would be a good time to take a look at the cricket landscape in China and ask whether Hangzhou 2022 could help the Middle Kingdom warm to this English sport.
China’s Cricketing Expats
Helping to keep China’s cricketing flame burning is a small but committed community of expat residents in China.
This is nothing new. As early as 1858, officers from the HMS Highflyer played against a Shanghai cricket team of 11, a game that saw the birth of the Shanghai Cricket Club. Despite an absence after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the club was re-established in 1994 and has been going strong ever since.
JJ Lim from Malaysia has been involved in Shanghai’s cricket scene since 1997. He currently serves as the Shanghai Cricket Club’s Youth Development and Liaison Officer for the China Cricket Team.
Lim told That’s about how he first came to discover cricket in Shanghai and the challenges they faced in terms of finding suitable playing facilities.
“When I first arrived in Shanghai, I found a cricket advert in an expats magazine,” he tells us. “I turned up for some nets (equipment used in cricket practice sessions). We played cricket on a rugby ground at Waigaoqiao Pudong. The wicket was made up of three pieces of thick iron sheets which were wheelbarrowed to the middle of the ground, laid as flat as possible and pegged down with straw-matting.”
Vikas Laxman from India serves as Shanghai Cricket Club Captain and previously served as League Director. He notes that facilities in Shanghai have come a long way since the early days and that cricketers in the city are lucky compared to other parts of the country, even though challenges remain.
“We have two main facilities where we host our games – Shanghai Community Sports Center (SCSC) and Wellington College,” Laxman tells That’s. “We face a lot of challenges in terms of ground availability to host our games, as there are others also competing for the facilities.”
Lalit Sharma from India has lived in southern China for 25 years and has been involved in the Shenzhen cricket scene since 2008.
“In 2008, we were 10-12 guys playing cricket on a tennis court with a tennis ball,” Sharma recalls. “Now, we play leather ball cricket in football stadiums.”
However, he does admit that facilities are still a problem. “Grounds are not easily available. We can’t play in open parks or stadiums that have other games going on for safety reasons.”
The shortage of suitable facilities has only been exacerbated by COVID-19.
Stephen from the UK, who requested we only use his first name, works in Beijing and has been captain of the Beijing Ducks Cricket Club since 2019.
“There are severe limitations on available areas to play,” Stephen tells us. “Cricket requires very specific fields and pitches and there is only one venue to our knowledge in Beijing right now. That venue has been very sensitive to the current pandemic situation.“
“We often have to try and adapt venues to cricket and that itself can cause issues.”
While facilities might pose difficulties, getting good-quality cricket equipment is not much of a problem.
Laxman points out that before restrictions on international travel were imposed, cricketers in China would travel to India, Pakistan, the UK and elsewhere and bring back equipment. Nowadays, cricketers rely more on buying equipment from inside China.
“Several local companies have started selling equipment from within China. So, now we have the liberty to buy it within China and avoid the hassle of carrying it from our home country.”
Lim agrees that getting equipment such as cricket balls from overseas is not a problem. The task has certainly been made easier by the likes of 4D Sports, a Guangdong-based company which imports and sells equipment on Taobao.
All practical issues aside, the enthusiasm among China’s expat cricketing community is undeniable. This is borne out in the numerous leagues, tournaments and tours which are organized in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and elsewhere.
In the 2021 season, Stephen played an active role in organizing fixtures for the main Beijing Cricket League made up of four teams, though the league was disrupted by COVID-19.
Laxman introduces the structure of the Shanghai league:
“Division 1 is the elite division and consists of 40-over games. Division 2 is an amateur-level division and consists of 30-over games. And Division 3 is more social-level cricket and consists of 25over games.”
As well as organizing tournaments using a hard leather ball, Sharma also organizes tennis ball cricket in Shenzhen for “an easier and safer format.”
Some tours even take clubs overseas; the Shanghai Cricket Club found itself traveling to North Korea in 2008. The Club’s website states that they were the “first club to play organized cricket in North Korea, competing for the Pyongyang Friendship Trophy.”
ESPN reported that these were the first-ever formal cricket matches in North Korea. They took place on May 2, 2008, at Pyongyang’s Taesongsan Park.
We can only imagine that popularizing cricket in North Korea has its own of unique challenges.
For now, many of China’s cricketing expats share the sentiment that they would like to see a return to preCOVID-19 normality (who wouldn’t?).
“The sport relies on a steady influx of new people arriving in the country, and that simply can’t happen right now because of safety concerns,” Stephen stresses.
Laxman expresses his desire to organize more games played between clubs from different cities across the country. He also expressed his desire for Shanghai to have its own purposebuilt cricket ground with a grass wicket – a desire no doubt shared by many cricketers in China.
Can Cricket Burst Its Expat Bubble?
Those who spoke to That’s each expressed their desire for more Chinese nationals to get involved in China’s cricket scene.
Stephen noted that he would like the Beijing cricket scene to become more involved with the two national teams. Meanwhile, Sharma said he hoped the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games would be something of a boost for garnering enthusiasm for cricket among locals.
China has had associate membership of the ICC since 2004, and the organization has long had the country in its sights as a target market.
The ICC General Manager of Development William Glennwright visited the country in 2017 with the aim of better understanding the Chinese cricketing market, as reported by Xinhua. He paid a visit to Shenyang to watch the men’s national development squad.
An article published by Forbes on November 28, 2021, acknowledged that, when it came to cricket, China was still a “work in progress.” The article also stressed that in recent years, the ICC had started to focus more effort on other emerging cricketing markets, like the US.
As Youth Development and Liaison Officer for the China Cricket Team, Lim shared with That’s some of his thoughts on the challenges facing the Chinese Cricket Association, China’s national governing body for the sport.
“It was unfortunate that, in 2020, the Chinese team’s foreign coach, appointed by the Asia Cricket Council, was unable to come to China due to travel restrictions,” Lim says. “So, the progress and development of the Chinese team, mainly made up of students aged between 15 to 18 years old, was badly affected.”
Lim now plays a role in the team’s preparations for the upcoming Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. He hopes for more collaboration between the Shanghai Cricket Club and the Chinese Cricket Association and that cricket will reach more of China’s school students. There have been some efforts on the part of Chinese cricket enthusiasts to help popularize the sport among China’s vast population.
Liu Jingmin is a professor of sport science at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He published a Chinese-language book entitled 板球基础教程 (banqiu jichu jiaocheng), or Guide to the Basics of Cricket, covering everything from the sport’s history to the rules of play and
Players from the Beijing Ducks Cricket Club after a weekend practice session. Image via Beijing Ducks Cricket Club
standard cricketing techniques.
The book was written in collaboration with the Asian Cricket Council and the Chinese Cricket Association, the latter of which Liu is a member.
That’s reached out to Professor Liu via email to request an interview but received no reply.
Needless to say, speaking to Chinese nationals involved in China’s cricketing scene was not easy. This was compounded by the fact that getting basic information was difficult; the Chinese Cricket Association doesn’t even have a website, though some information is available via the Shanghai Cricket Association and the Asian Cricket Council.
Nonetheless, we had no trouble discovering the Chinese national teams’ various achievements over recent years. 2010 marked something of a turning point for cricket in China as Guangzhou hosted the Asian Games.
While China’s men’s cricket team didn’t win a match at the Games, the women’s team finished in a commendable fourth place. They beat Malaysia and Thailand, before losing out in the bronze-medal match to Japan.
A year later, the women’s team were finalists in the Asian Cricket Council Women’s T20 Championship.
Along with the Chinese mainland’s first purpose-built cricket pitch with a grass wicket, the women’s team’s success is perhaps one of the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games’ greatest legacies for cricket in China.
Hangzhou 2022 – The Boost Chinese Cricket Needs?
The Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games are scheduled to take place from September 10 to 25, 2022.
One way in which China’s cricket scene will benefit from the Games is in the form of a purpose-built cricket ground with a grass wicket, the second on the Chinese mainland.
The ground, located at Zhejiang University of Technology’s Pingfeng Campus, is reportedly near completion.
The Asian Games is not a huge highlight on the cricketing calendar. Cricketing giant India has already hinted that they will send neither a men’s nor a women’s team to the Games due to other priorities, as reported by Reuters.
Moreover, garnering enough enthusiasm to pull in a big crowd might be difficult. Is it possible that COVID-19 restrictions might mean only selected spectators can attend as was the case during the Winter Olympics and Paralympics? We’ll wait and see.
China’s cricket scene would be wise to focus its energy on fixing structural problems. But that doesn’t mean Hangzhou 2022 can’t help spread the word about cricket to those who would otherwise be unfamiliar with the sport.
Before then, we await the arrival of summer and with it the cricket season – a season that hopefully sees players across China from all walks of life participating in the true spirit of cricket.
Eight teams from Hong Kong and other parts of southern China participated in the South China Super 6’s in pre-COVID times. The Shenzhen World XI won the tournament. Image via Lalit Sharma
