美国国家公共电台 NPR China And Brazil Woo Each Other With Soccer Power

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now to our series on China's growing influence in the world. That influence is felt particularly strongly in Latin America, where Chinese investments are growing rapidly. It's often said that Brazil provides the food on China's dinner tables, from soybeans to beef and chicken. Those exports helped make China Brazil's biggest trading partner. As NPR's Philip Reeves reports, Brazil also has something else the Chinese want.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Foreign language spoken).

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE¹: You see this everywhere here.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Foreign language spoken).

REEVES: Young men are playing soccer under a warm afternoon sun. Look again, though, and you'll notice there's something different about this game. We're in Brazil, yet all the players are Chinese.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Foreign language spoken).

REEVES: They're teenagers who've come here - 11,000 miles from home - to pursue a dream.

PAIERMAN KUERBANTAYI: My dream is difficult. I want to go to my country team in China, play World Cup. This is my big dream.

REEVES: Paierman Kuerbantayi is 17. He's here to learn how to make it to the top in professional soccer - or football, as everyone here calls it. He's glad he came.

KUERBANTAYI: I think I like the Brazil football. I want to play in here because step-by-step here for me is good. I want to make a professional player, so everything's important.

(LAUGHTER)

REEVES: We're at a soccer training academy near a town called Porto Feliz in southeast Brazil. It's part of a minor² league Brazilian club called Desportivo Brasil. A few years ago, Desportivo was bought by one of China's most successful clubs, Shandong Luneng. Shandong sends teenage recruits here to learn from Brazil, a soccer-mad nation that's won more World Cups than any other.

LEONARDO GALBES: It's a good - really, really good experience, difficult experience because the language is totally different. The culture is totally different.

REEVES: Leonardo Galbes is coach of the under-16 team who've come from China. Becoming a top-class professional soccer player is hard, says Galbes, who's Brazilian. Of the 38 Chinese players here, Galbes thinks a couple might make it.

GALBES: Yes, I think that we have three guys that - of course, their way is a big way. It's a big way. But I think that we have three guys with a good potential to play in higher level.

REEVES: Back in China, Shandong already has several Brazilians in its first team. They're among 23 Brazilians playing in the China Super League for big bucks³, including a couple of stars who've played in Brazil's national side. They help raise standards, yet Leonardo Meireles, sports editor of Correio Braziliense, thinks long-term youth training is the key to success.

LEONARDO MEIRELES: That's a correct way to do - to improve football. That's a correct way.

REEVES: Meireles thinks Brazil is the right place for Chinese youngsters to come to learn the game.

MEIRELES: Because we're the best (laughter). Because we're the best.

REEVES: You see, says Meireles, in Brazil, the first gift you give a child is not a fluffy⁴ toy...

MEIRELES: It's a ball. It's a ball for every boy and now a girl, too.

REEVES: According to FIFA, soccer's governing body, China is ranked No. 76 in the world, two places behind Syria. China's only ever qualified⁵ once for the World Cup. It didn't win a single game or score a goal. The Chinese are trying to turn this around. President Xi Jinping is a big fan of the sport. He's behind a grand plan to make China a soccer superpower. That includes setting up tens of thousands of soccer schools in China. Under-16 coach Leonardo Galbes, again.

GALBES: China have all things that's necessary to develop great soccer. They have people. They have space, and they have money.

REEVES: This isn't just about soccer. It's also about China trying to project soft power across the map. In Brazil, it's already doing that on multiple fronts.

LUIZ AUGUSTO DE CASTRO NEVES: The Chinese presence is increasingly expanding everywhere - with football, with services, with banks, with industry, high-tech⁶ sectors⁷.

REEVES: That's Luiz Augusto de Castro Neves, chair of the China-Brazil Business Council. China is Brazil's No. 1 trading partner. Last year, the Brazilians earned some $48 billion from the Chinese, mostly by selling them soybeans, oil and iron ore. Trade has been growing rapidly in recent years and so has Chinese investment in Brazil.

QU YUHUI: Its business, business, business. And it's especially market-orientated, decided⁸ by the demand and supply of both sides.

REEVES: Qu Yuhui is political counselor⁹ at China's embassy in Brazil. China's putting money into a wide range of projects, he says.

QU: Like electricity, like equipment, like petroleum¹⁰, the banks, also. And it's also in urban development. We have, also, some infrastructure¹¹ programs. Ports - we have, already, three or four projects. And I think we are also following closely one or two railway projects here.

REEVES: As for soccer, Qu Yuhui's clear about what China wants from Brazil.

QU: So we should learn from the Brazilian soccer style in terms of ball possession, shot, one touch, two touch, et cetera. So maybe that's totally a soccer fan's personal view, not...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Goal.

QU: (Laughter).

REEVES: I can tell you like soccer from the way you're talking about it...

QU: Yeah. Yes, quite.

REEVES: China wants to win the World Cup one day, right?

QU: We want, but I know it will be very difficult.

(CHEERING)

REEVES: Back at the training academy in the Brazilian countryside, the Chinese teenage soccer players are working on a key game-winning skill...

(LAUGHTER)

REEVES: ...Penalty kicks. These young players spend 10 months here before heading back to Shandong. Every day, they train for a couple of hours. They also have academic lessons. Lin Ran is sure his trip to Brazil is paying dividends¹².

RAN: I think I change a lot from my body. Every day, I go to gym to do some exercise to make my body strong.

REEVES: Lin Ran is 16 and an attacking midfielder. He knows exactly what his goal is.

RAN: I want to play World Cup and the Champions League.

REEVES: And to win the World Cup?

RAN: Yeah. Just a dream, right?

REEVES: Philip Reeves, NPR News, Porto Feliz.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

3 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。

5 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

6 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

7 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

10 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 dividends   

红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金

参考例句：

• Nothing pays richer dividends than magnanimity. 没有什么比宽宏大量更能得到厚报。
• Their decision five years ago to computerise the company is now paying dividends. 五年前他们作出的使公司电脑化的决定现在正产生出效益。