China

Sevens Heaven

By Liam Fitzpatrick | March 26, 2009 | +

Wander through the stands of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens—the city’s biggest sports event—and it’s as if the 1997 reunification with China had never happened. The English-speaking community, at other times a collection of dissipated stragglers in the population statistics, becomes a roaring, Mexican-waving, demographic powerhouse, or the semblance of it, during the last weekend in March—coralled as it is in the lager-slopped confines of the Hong Kong Stadium. Its numbers are swollen with thirsty ranks of out-of-towners—the British stag parties (for some reason always in drag), the corporate visitors in rainbow-colored Afro wigs, and the middle-aged “children of empire” returning from far and wide on their annual hometown pilgrimages. The Hong Kong Chinese in the audience often seem faintly surprised by the drunken crowd, which is fair enough. Very little in their own experience has prepared those that do attend for the sight of, say, a blonde trollop passed out in her bra, or the quivering pink man-boobs of the bawling, shirtless lout in the seat behind. But it’s all great fun. And as the lucky holder of a ticket (the fruit of two hours of speed dialing a hotline from three phones), I am eagerly anticipating the tournament’s opening late tomorrow afternoon.

This year, for the first time, the party has been deemed worthy of academic scrutiny. Joseph Bosco—a rugby-playing professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who, earlier this month, gave a public lecture entitled Globalization and Sport: An Anthropological Analysis of the History of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens—is leading a Hong Kong Anthropological Society field trip to the event to examine its rituals and meanings. If you happen to be in town and are interested in attending, you can find the society’s contact information here. I believe Prof. Bosco will be making profound points, as he did in his lecture, about the ways in which “nationalism, gender play, and general carnival atmosphere of the tournament reflect the emerging values of the contemporary global order.” You’ll be in for an engrossing time, in other words. And permit me to apologize in advance if the inebriated, hollering goon in the crowd that is the subject of your scholarly gaze turns out to be me.

Related Topics: hong kong, Hong Kong Anthropological Society, Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, rugby, Rugby Sevens, Sevens, Sport, China

  • Latest on Global Spin

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
    Afghanistan May 21, 2012

    Obama’s Afghanistan Problem: Neither Karzai Nor the Taliban Like the ‘Reconciliation’ Script

    President Barack Obama huddled with President Hamid Karzai in Chicago on Sunday, urging Afghanistan’s leader to accelerate negotiations with the Taliban over a political solution to the longest war in America’s history. But the prospect for Karzai negotiating successfully with the insurgents is clouded by a question raised by Josef Stalin, on the eve of World War II, in response to the suggestion that he offer concessions to the Pope: “How many divisions does he have?” The Taliban now ask the same question about Karzai. And should the Afghan leader also ask himself the question, he might reach a similarly dispiriting conclusion. Karzai’s independent power base is minimal, as is his ability to influence the outcome of his country’s civil war absent direct U.S. involvement. And that gives neither Karzai nor the Taliban much incentive to cut a deal with the other.

    JOSEPH EID/AFP/GettyImages
    Daily Briefing May 21, 2012

    Must-Reads from Around the World, May 21, 2012

    Spillover - Lebanon’s Daily Star reports on escalating violence inside the country after soldiers shot dead a prominent anti-Bashar al-Assad Muslim preacher Sunday. “The gravity of the incident… prompted leaders on both sides of the political divide to call for calm and restraint to prevent the country from sliding into sectarian strife as a result of a spillover of the 15-month-old uprising in neighboring Syria,” it says.

    UPPA / ZUMAPRESS
    U.K. May 21, 2012

    A Royal Party: Britain Celebrates 60 Years of Queen Elizabeth II

    From parades to concerts, and even tea with commoners, 86 year-old Queen Elizabeth II is traversing the United Kingdom to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee.

  • eecavazos

    Ahhhh, Mexican-waving = the Wave done in a stadium.

  • johnsmith9876

    Another case of westerners getting overly sensitive to contaminants, and they should be happy that they get furniture at all:

    http://tinyurl.com/d8b9cp

  • johnsmith9876

    Chinese posters here better save this article. It justifies any dam bursts in China, especially that of the Gorges variety. And this is a new dam, only 70 years old.

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/27/asia/dam.php

  • johnsmith9876

    Great news. Youtube is working in some parts of China again. See, Internet in China is the freest !!!

  • johnsmith9876

    China is a free country, because it won’t ever allow this kind of things to happen in China:
    http://news.163.com/09/0327/18/55EDGMC20001124J.html

  • sinibaldi1

    Sending the memory.

    That candle,
    when the greatest
    level tries to
    forget a loving
    intention, appears
    in my mind
    like a distant
    idea, and also
    this care invents
    an emotion.

    Francesco Sinibaldi

    http://forums.lavoix.com/index.php?showtopic=1419

  • aronlee

    Let’s see the best human rights record which completely outstood China’s, of course those in Tibet!!!
    US enjoys a really good record of human rights, doesn’t it? Let’s see: Abu Ghraib Prison, 200 thousand massacred Iraqis, supporting Israeli troops slaughtering Palenstanines, raping Japanese girls freely, using chemical and depleted-uranium weapons towards civilians in Yugoslavia, the Agent Orange or dioxins used unbridledly in Vietnam leaving the coming babies deformed, special treatment for the prisoners in Guantanamo, the biggest prison system and the most prisoners in the world, the biggest polluter in the world,fed Katrina with the lives of people in New Orlean, it’s too hard to list at least 1% of them, isn’t it? I even don’t know if I need to mention something “pre-history”? about the massacred native Americans? slavery of the black? Ironically, the history of America is just a history of bloodshed and numberless violations against human rights.Was it that Stature of Liberty arrogantly set up in New York to honour such a glorious record of America?
    Brazenly enough, such a nation indulging in bloodlust and manslaughter loves picking up the faults of other countries!!!
    Dialectically, the tags of “terrorists” can be tagged to anyone who threatens the national security of USA, the tags of ” evil members of the axis of evil” can be tagged to any nation which threatens the ruling power of USA in the world. That’s to say,conspicuously and ironically, sometimes the two words “terrorist” and “axis of evil”, to a certain extent, means “the arrogant dissidents against USA”. Of course, I don’t mean I support terrorism. I hate al-Qaeda as sharply as how US people did: any attack actions targeted at innocent people are of course terroristic. But what I have to indicate is that wars striking terrorism may be used as the cover to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and even the excuse to invade some countries by the Bush (almost Nazi-styled)administration. This is too contemptible!!! In order to get the excuses to launch the Iraq War, the Defence Department even sent so-called military experts to some TV stations to transmit the false message so the people can be tricked in to believing what the US forces did was necessary even massacring. US forces have massacred about at least 200 thousand Iraqis in direct ways or indirect ways. I almost feel extremely disgusted at the pictures and videos of the atrocious bloodshed in Iraq replaying in TV everyday. I want to know who can protect their human rights? I think to live is the most basic human right which should be given to everyone in the world, but I don’t know why the most cruel and evil butcher having a gory hand in hundreds of thousands of deaths of innocent people and the abyssal misery of them are so brazen to criticize the human rights of other countries? Do you Americans know what the hell the shame is? Anyone who seems like a terrorist must be eliminated ruthlessly, no matter, in fact, who it is, a child or a pregnant woman? As long as weak enough, any nation which dissents from the hegemony of US must be the country supporting terrorism or planning to destroy the world so it can live alone in the world? US is so used to bullying the weak but being scared of the tough. Who is tougher than US and who can determine the fate of US will be treated to the hip-kissing no matter what things it did. Why US has never tried to eastablish so-called democracy in Saudi Arabia and criticize the human rights record of it? US is too hypocritical! US criticises the human rights conditions of some nations not in order to improve the human rights there but just uses this method to intimidate and scare so it will help the foreign policies of US to make itself stand highly in morality. Why did US launched the evil war towards Iraq? Because of nuclear or biochemical bombs there? To eliminate the dictatorship and give the Iraqi people democracy? To strike terrorism? Or just for oil? Ironically, what the counter-terrorists did was more terrific than terrorists’. They attacks and kidnaps, but this is completely nothing compared to what US did in Iraq. US likes to massacre them! Maybe this is more efficient to intimidate the other countries supporting terrorism into “counter-”TERRORISM of US. Bin Laden is of course a evil terrorist, and al-Qaeda is of course an organization of terrorism. But there is no difference between Bush Administration or US government and al-Qaeda, Iran, North Korea at all!!! It’s all the same!!! Maybe trying to expiate the sins of Americans can be too hard or even impossible, but trying to stop the buzzing gibberish about other countries may improve a little on the image of US. US is hating by more and more people in the world, if US were hated by anyone outside US in the world, the doomsday of it will come!
    Finally, I feel so sympathetic with those poor brainwahsed animials under such a brazen and capitalistic dictatorship. You all need revolution!!!
    PS: It will be a real honour for me to be a Communist and called a Communist. But unfortunately, I am not qualified enough to become a Communist for the time being because I’m just a high school student. If someone calls me a Communist, I will be very happy!

  • http://ur7s.com/ rugby7s

    check out this great article on http://ur7s.com about rugby 7s in China and how it will be effected the Olympics

    http://ur7s.com/news/459/china_anticipate_positive_olympic_decision

blog comments powered by Disqus