Real Communication

How does a person communicate with someone else when they do not speak a common language or share a common culture? How about sports? There is something universal about kicking, dribbling, passing, and hitting that requires little or no verbal communication. With this in mind, Kunming International Academy (KIA) took our middle school and high school basketball teams to the northwest corner of Yunnan to play games versus a few teams in and around Zhong Dian, a Tibetan minority city within our own province. Through a series of games, the boys and girls of KIA found an opportunity to share more than just sports.

The reception our teams received was both impressive and fairly consistent with international relations in China. The DiQing Ethnic Vocational School--a kind of technical university--welcomed our students and coaches with singing and traditional, white Tibetan scarves of friendship. In the photo below, the students holding the banner are wearing traditional Tibetan clothing. The school's main building stands beyond the tour bus. At nearly 10,000 feet, the weather in Zhong Dian (now known as Shan ge li la, or Shangrila) is either absolutely beautiful, like in the picture, or frighteningly brutal.
The scene when our boys stepped on the court was rather strange: the opponents, predominantly Tibetan minority Chinese students, wore replica uniforms of the U. S. National Men's Basketball Team. The Chinese love to support championship teams. Therefore, it is not unusual to see Chinese people wearing the jerseys of the current World Cup, English Premier League, European Cup (all soccer) champion; the current NBA champion; or the current Olympic champion. So these young men proudly wore their uniforms as if they themselves were the Olympic basketball gold medalists. Plus, they were good.
When I was in high school, as a member of the band, I often got out of school to play my instrument when our teams competed in the State Tournament. China may not always have a pep band, but the students still take the opportunity of a game, especially against a bunch of foreigners, to get of class to cheer for their guys. With very little court side room, these boys chose to take in the game from the "press box" balcony. They probably moved these chairs from their classroom in order to view in comfort. During the local Kunming high school basketball tournament, it is not strange to have students lining the outside hallways of each of the three to seven story school buildings, cheering for the Chinese teams.
This year's version of the KIA girls team found itself rather sparse of players. Of the seven players that came out, only one of them--Louisa, in the red standing on the right side of the picture next to Miss Olivas, the coach--is in "high school" (tenth through twelfth grade). Therefore, KIA only has a Junior High team. Even so, Louisa has continued to train with the younger girls, giving them a senior leader who knows she will never get to play this year. This photo, taken after our junior high team had just beaten the vocational school girls, shows how the competition on the court has lead to smiles all around.
In some ways, school sports in China remind me of physical education class. While the quality of the play is actually quite good, the scoreboard in China is not the electronic marvel that some schools in the States boast. Instead, team fouls are kept as hash marks on a piece of paper. The possession arrow is a small orange cone pointing one way or the other on the scorer's table. And most reminiscent of P. E.: the "scoreboard" is one of those simple number-flip-boards, like the one below. While the score below is not the final, our boys did manage to keep this game close against a bunch of college age guys. However, as they found out later, the starting lineup for the Chinese school was actually a row of giants sitting behind our girls team. They did not even play our boys; I guess we got lucky they didn't.
Our boys and girls were allowed to spend time talking with the students before, during, and after the games. During this time, our students used their Chinese language skills to share many things about their lives. Because the Chinese schools do not have athletic seasons like we know them in the States, these games gave both teams an opportunity to get in some matches when they normally would not. Also, for many of these Chinese students, this will be the only time in their lives when they have the opportunity to compete against international athletes. For those from the surrounding villages, they may not see foreigners for several years at a time. In any case, both our students and the Chinese students enjoyed this opportunity to "speak" the language of athletics, opening the door for real communication.