Today was one of the most interesting days of the trip so far because we got to experience both traditional Chinese culture and the business side of basketball in China.
We started the day by visiting a kung fu school, where the students welcomed us with an incredible performance. They first came out in dragon costumes and performed a traditional dragon dance along with a drum performance. After that, the performance became even more impressive as they used flags, whips, and the dragon while doing flips, martial arts, and other stunts. It was amazing to watch how coordinated and athletic everyone was. The entire performance was meant as a welcome ceremony for our group, which made it feel even more immersive for us. They put on a show just to welcome our group before we actually learned anything.
One of the most interesting things we learned was how intense life is for the students at the kung fu school. Most of the students are not local and live at the school for around 12 years while training. They only get two days off every two weeks, which was honestly hard to believe. The students on the performance team spend most of their time focusing on training instead of academics during the week. Seeing how disciplined and dedicated they were gave me a whole new level of respect for the amount of work that goes into martial arts at that level. Also, they pack 8 kids into one dorm room which most students in the American colleges can't even imagine dealing with.
Later in the day, we visited the NBA China offices and met with the Head of Partner Solutions. They explained how the NBA markets different players, teams, and events to audiences in China. It was really interesting to learn how much strategy goes into advertising and how companies change their approach depending on the target audience. They talked about how China is the NBA’s biggest market outside of the United States and how important basketball culture is there. It was cool hearing about the business side of sports because most people only think about what happens on the court. We also got to preview an advertisement that no one else has seen yet and it gave us insight on how they think behind the scenes before people can see all their work on the television or broadcasts.
The office itself was really impressive, and it was interesting seeing how global the NBA has become. We also got to take group pictures and look around the building while learning more about their partnerships and branding strategies in China.
Today was a great combination of culture, sports, and business. We got to experience a traditional side of China through the kung fu performance while also seeing how modern sports organizations operate internationally. It was definitely a day I’ll remember for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment