When the NBA along with its partners announced the formation of the NBA China entity last year, not much was clear on the direction that this project would take.

Now well over a year after, the NBA’s strategy in China has taken a concrete form and its intentions are becoming clearer by the day. With the introduction of American style entertainment arenas, and American style reality shows encouraging American style cheerleading and streetball competitions – the NBA is simply copying the exact blueprint that made the league so successful on home soil and internationally.

This strategy makes sense – as part of the appeal of the NBA in China is this form of self expression and creativity that basketball makes possible. No other sport has as much flash, attitude, and style and therefore these attributes must stand at the forefront of what the NBA is marketing in China as well.

The only issue lies with China’s deeply rooted historical and cultural ties that it refuses to completely liberate. Yes McDonalds’ and Starbucks’ can now be seen at every street corner, but in values it holds very cLose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercisely it is still holding on tight and preventing globalization from having too much influence.

One example is the quota set on foreign movies to be shown in cinemas, which is currently set at 20 per year. This is in dark contrast to the black market for DVD’s where foreign movies and television shows tend to dominate. It is this kind of free market and globalization related pressure that the Chinese authorities are increasingly having to deal with in their pursuit of retaining traditional cultures and fending off total Westernization or Americanization.

In Yu Keping’s book Democracy is a Good Thing, he highlights this dilemma that the Chinese government is facing:

“In the view of many Chinese, there is a real risk that globalization will lead to Westernization or even Americanization. The government has developed many strategies to prevent this. For instance, Chinese leaders do not wish to imitate a capitalist economic model, and they refuse to adopt Western political systems and core political values.”

 

China is no different from most Western countries in engaging in a broad set of debates and discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of globalization. Some believe that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Others, including many in the government, have come to believe that the advantages are potentially much more significant than the disadvantages.”

Perhaps it is this last sentence that explains the ability of NBA China to so openly spread and impose its Western culture onto the Chinese population. Much like the internet has known to break barriers that the government could no longer totally control -Globalization/Westernization/Americanization is similarly becoming a powerful force that China can no longer fight off.

But as we can see, China doesn’t need to fight globalization as they are one of the nations which has taken most advantage of it. If we look at the NBA in specific, the investment of the NBA in China and the experience it will bring will do wonders for China’s still underdeveloped entertainment industry. These 12 arenas that the NBA is building along with AEG should lead the way towards other forms of entertainment developing as well.

While the NBA may end up cannibalizing the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association), it is a cost that the Chinese authorities have seemingly been willing to accept for the greater good that will come of it. And lets face it, the CBA is not a league that is on path to serve the worlds largest basketball market. However, other important values to the Chinese such as Confucianist beliefs of dignity and humbleness are also under threat. Current Chinese players in the NBA still don’t show any signs of deterring from these principles, but China’s newer generations seem to be slowly swayed by the NBA’s in your face attitude, trashtalking and hip-hop culture.

In the end, Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise-weight-Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise: normal”>NBA China does represent an area where China is becoming Americanized if you will. However Americanization/Westernization of sports isn’t necessarily a betrayal of its roots. Sports is a global concept that no country owns to itself. Development and modernization of sports, whatever name they might fall under, is something that even the most protectionist of countries should and do follow.