Basketball booming in rural China
KNOWING that the rural basketball stars of his hometown were fighting for the championship against 21 teams from other districts, cities, and counties, Ma Guixing, a 70-year-old farmer, drove all the way to cheer for them.
With only 24 seconds left, the Yuanzhou team, which Ma Guixing and other villagers rooted for, were just three points ahead of their opponent. The three-time champion managed to secure the win and got access to China’s National Games on behalf of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
“I am so excited, and the game gives our rural basketball fans a larger stage,” said Ma Guixing, a basketball fan from Sanying Village, Yuanzhou District of Guyuan City in China’s underdeveloped Ningxia. Villagers who came together with him were all old basketball fans over 50 years old.
This was the fourth regionallevel basketball game held for farmers in Ningxia’s Xihaigu, labeled the “most unfit place for human settlement” by the United Nations in the 1970s.
Although once in extreme poverty, Xihaigu farmers have been crazy about basketball for a long time — a basketball stand made of an iron ring, a plank and a stick, a worn basketball as well as a piece of dusty land, could bring about a feast for thousands of villagers.
“For watching a village-level game, villagers usually stood on stools, and each crotch of trees would be seized by an enthusiastic audience,” recalled Ma Yuxiang, 41, a rural basketball star on the Yuanzhou team.
With China’s move of the targeted poverty-alleviation campaign, rural areas in Xihaigu saw great changes. Besides, the Farmers’ Fitness
Project implemented for years ensures each village at least one outdoor basketball field.
To satisfy farmers’ needs to watch and play basketball, Ningxia has begun to hold the regional-level game since 2018 and made it a brand competition.
The basketball carnival for farmers provides them with professional fields and expands the influence of rural basketball stars.
The stadium with a capacity of 3,000 was built last year. An electronic scoreboard, a smart basketball stand, a large HD screen for live broadcasts outside the stadium, as well as four livestreams all make this farmers’ game more professional.
“There were over 200,000 online viewers each day, and the number reached 280,000 when an underdog team defeated a star team,” said Bai Ziyan, vice president of Ningxia Basketball
League, who was the online commentator.
“The whole northwest China could watch the farmers’ game!”
As the quality of life improves, Xihaigu farmers are now even more enthusiastic about basketball.
“Our village holds at least two basketball games each year, and sometimes we invite people from nearby villagers to join us. More audiences come here than before,” Ma Yuxiang said.
The regional-level game has inspired more village games.
According to Su Fuyu, a village secretary who also joined the game this time, basketball games have enriched farmers’ daily lives.
And misconduct such as gambling, fighting and overdrinking during farming down time are rarely seen.