Beauties in World Cup

Culture insider: China, birthplace of football

It's not uncommon to hear educated Chinese women openly admiring well-known international soccer players for their looks and masculinity, as if they were Hollywood heartthrobs.

However, at a deeper level, Chinese soccer, plagued by bribes and corruption, may have also driven droves of local fans to the World Cup and other international tournaments. China qualified for its one and only World Cup finals in 2002, and then failed to score a single goal in three games.

The Chinese players and their managers have squandered the support of their fans and public money, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Some online commentators have made droll comments, likening the Chinese obsession with foreign soccer to seeking "vicarious enjoyment".

In my workplace, management meetings can now easily go astray as colleagues bring up the topic of the World Cup matches they have watched. But for the past four years I've never heard them discussing the Chinese Super League, which is often viewed as a national joke.

I'm no soccer fanatic, and I will not stay up late, even on July 13 for the World Cup final. But after trying to analyze the psyche of a typical Chinese fan, I've become more understanding of their enthusiasm for the tournament, which, as certain cynics have pointed out, appears to have no connection whatsoever with Chinese soccer.

As for my aging father-in-law who was born and bred in a northern Chinese city known as the "capital of Chinese soccer", how many more World Cup games will he have the chance to watch?