Far from home, expats fill China’s sports bars to cheer on the home team.

It’s a grey and chilly Friday morning in Beijing. Twenty-five expats warm themselves with plates of breakfast, mugs of free coffee and Game 2 of the World Series at The Rickshaw, a popular bar in Sanlitun. Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell ropes a double into left and the small crowd breaks into wild cheers.

Red Sox Nation is alive and well 12 time zones away.

Even the most baijiu guzzling sino-phile has the occasional pang of longing for the comforts of home. For some, it's during the holidays; for others, it’s at much more holy times: the World Series, March Madness and the Super Bowl. China may religiously broadcast all of Yao Ming's games live, but if you’re not a Houston Rockets fan, CCTV5 is a poor fix for expat sports fans hungry for home team action.

“I’m American and I love the NFL,” says Chad Lager, manager of The Rickshaw. “Think about how crazy we would all go without that taste of home. We all need that escape, whether it be a taste of food, drink, music or sports. That’s why we do so well (at The Rickshaw). Every foreigner in China has those needs.”

Sports bars in China show a wide range of events to reflect the varied backgrounds and allegiances of their patrons. John Harkness of the Goose and Duck in Beijing says that his bar is equipped to show six different sporting events at a given time while Lager says Rickshaw policy is “if we can get it, we will play it.”

“We show everything from American football, baseball, boxing, basketball and golf, to soccer, rugby, F1 and Australian Rules Football,” Lager explains. “There are so many leagues, channels, playoffs and cup events, just keeping track of them is a full time job in itself.”

Catching a game at the local bar in the company of friends and rivals is a holy duty for sports fans. “What’s the absolute best thing about watching a game at a bar versus at home?” Lager asks. “You get to hassle the person sitting next to you.” In China, where few people have the luxury of Star Sports at home, gathering at bars to catch games is an absolute necessity. The late night showing of the Rugby World Cup championship at The Pavillion in Beijing drew numerous expats singing national anthems and wearing flags as capes and during last year’s soccer World Cup every venue that could trot out a projection scresen became a breeding ground for well-meaning nationalism. “It’s almost always good natured, and we’ve never had a fight,” Lager says of the potential for soccer-style hooliganism. “Those loyalties add a lot to the experience.”

Harkness agrees that rivalries add a great deal to the sports bar experience, but suggests that watching games actually serves more to unite patrons than separate them. “These games bridge gaps, not necessarily culturally, but professionally,” Harkness explains. “You can have a CEO and an English teacher and a private business owner like me all together just being fans. That doesn’t happen at many other places.” Other expats suggest that these games help them get closer to their Chinese friends. “This past year I watched the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, and Lebron James had the greatest game I have ever seen,” remembers Adam Coughlin, an American writer in China. “I will always remember watching that game with my Chinese friends because they knew so much about the game and appreciated the performance as much as I did. It seems silly, but it really showed even though we grew up worlds apart we are not so different.”

Harkness recalls last year’s Super Bowl when 600 people descended on the Goose and Duck: “We were giving footballs away as gifts, and after the game everyone went outside, and we hung a tire for people to try to throw the balls through… You see these guys, and you know that the next day at work they will be brokering big deals or in the classroom studying Chinese, but on that day they were just freezing out in the cold with their beers, trying to throw a football through an old taxi tire.”

Aside from big ticket events like the World Series or the Super Bowl, American sports just don’t have the traction that European sports do in China’s sports bars. “I go to a lot of rugby games,” says red-blooded American Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer. “Not that I actually watch rugby, but it’s all my annoyingly British friends watch.” Lager of The Rickshaw says that the Rugby World Cup has easily been the biggest draw this year. “We show other sports,” he says, “but they don’t match up.”

Despite the growing popularity of the sport in China, basketball appears to be the most ignored sport in Beijing and Shanghai sports bars. As the college basketball and NBA seasons get into full swing, Kenneth Walker of Bubba’s in Shanghai laments that “Basketball is probably the least followed of all American sports. We get small crowds for playoff games, but honestly during the season there isn’t a lot of interest.” This point was cruelly driven home to many basketball fans last season when finding tournament and playoff games proved a difficult odyssey. Beijing’s Jim Boyce posted a story on Beijing Boyce, his blog about nightlife in the Chinese capital, detailing his futile journey trying to find a bar that would turn on a Toronto Raptors playoff game. The sad tale ended with a bartender refusing to turn off a cricket match even though no one was watching, because “cricket is what had been put on the schedule.”

Will this carry through to the most sacred of American basketball events: March Madness? “I’m hoping to get March Madness,” Lager says, “but, as for individual games throughout the season, that can be more difficult.” Harkness also says he wants to get more college basketball for this coming season. “If people show up and show an interest, we will do what we can to put their games on at the Goose and Duck.” Until then it seems, red cards, rowdy Euros, and rugby-induced cauliflower ears will continue to rule China’s sports bars.

by Jonathan Haagen

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