Beijing Ballers

Tags:: Babelgum Film Basketball Streets Culture Youth Western Urban Courts Beijing China Chinese Streetball

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By: Babelgum
Subscribers: 26
Updated: 28-Nov-09
Videos: 10959

English
Comments: 0
Views: 7
Added: 07-Oct-09

The Chinese concept of 'sport' has greatly evolved over the past 100 years. Traditionally Western sports were adopted almost immediately after the fall of the Qing Dynasty as a tool to create a strong and healthy nation. The 2008 Beijing Olympics allowed let the world witness China to step onto the international sporting stage as a powerful player, but what we did not see was sports culture that has been blossoming in urban China.

A relatively undocumented and unstudied phenomenon, Chinese youth have been creating their own 'street basketball' culture. Basketball is not only a sitefor national icons like Yao Ming, it is a place where Chinese youth have the power to negotiate their role in China's rapidly developing society. Basketball courts are not only places to play basketball, they are places to meet new people, start new styles, and have new conversations.

I spent the summer of 2007 carrying a basketball in one hand and a tripod in the other to basketball courts throughout Beijing. What I found was that basketball was the language that allowed for a window into a Beijing's urban culture. While Western media is often flooded with images of 'ancient Beijing' or 'skyscraper Beijing' little attention has been paid to the what life is like for Beijing's 'laobaixing.'

This documentary follows the development of street basketball in Beijing.