One man's quest to teach the People's Republic of China to love football
Bamboo Goalposts
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Review
'An idiosyncratic voice and a sharp eye for the absurd.' -- The Observer Sport
'Fascinating and compelling, this is a timely book, particularly with the Olympics currently focusing all eyes on the Chinese government.' -- 442 magazine
'His [Rowan's] love for football is evidently equaled by his love for China, and they are the two passions celebrated in this book.' -- Asian Review of Books
'His love affair with the country is colourfully recollected in this sport-driven travelogue as he brushes against politics...' -- Metro
'Please buy a copy of this book. His journey is great and his passion infectious.'
-- London Arts News
'Rowan recalls the various successes and failures of his efforts to encourage his adopted country to embrace the beautiful game.' -- Independent Publisher's Group website
'Simons describes his 20-year experience of teaching the Chinese to play football and the game's evolution in the country.'
-- The Wall Street Journal
'Simons is able to deal with a wealth of cultural materials and offer far-reaching insights.' -- China International Business magazine
'This is a book largely about amateur football but you most definitely do not need to be interested in football...' -- China Britain Business Review
'[Simons] uses football...as a prism through which to take a wider sociopolitical look at the country and its Culture.' -- Metro
'Fascinating and compelling, this is a timely book, particularly with the Olympics currently focusing all eyes on the Chinese government.' -- 442 magazine
'His [Rowan's] love for football is evidently equaled by his love for China, and they are the two passions celebrated in this book.' -- Asian Review of Books
'His love affair with the country is colourfully recollected in this sport-driven travelogue as he brushes against politics...' -- Metro
'Please buy a copy of this book. His journey is great and his passion infectious.'
-- London Arts News
'Rowan recalls the various successes and failures of his efforts to encourage his adopted country to embrace the beautiful game.' -- Independent Publisher's Group website
'Simons describes his 20-year experience of teaching the Chinese to play football and the game's evolution in the country.'
-- The Wall Street Journal
'Simons is able to deal with a wealth of cultural materials and offer far-reaching insights.' -- China International Business magazine
'This is a book largely about amateur football but you most definitely do not need to be interested in football...' -- China Britain Business Review
'[Simons] uses football...as a prism through which to take a wider sociopolitical look at the country and its Culture.' -- Metro
Review
'Bamboo Goalpost is a highly unusual and very entertaining sporting book.'
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By Super Blue
Format:Hardcover
A must for all those remotely interested by either football or China and preferably both! Englishman Rowan Simons manages to effortlessly entertain, amuse and inform us as he leads us on his own one man odyssey for the right to play amateur football in modern China. He combines his often hilarious anecdotes and extraordinary experiences with a rare insight into the history and culture of the game in a country he has clearly come to understand profoundly. From his student days in Tiananmen Square to his unlikely role as Chinese television's favorite soccer pundit, Simons treats us to a rare insight into the complexities of modern China. For anyone who has ever played the game, from Sunday league upwards, this is a fascinating, sometimes unbelievable and always enjoyable read. Highly recommended to all lovers of sport in general and football in particular, this book has to be read to be believed!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A. Ross
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
I've long wondered why the Chinese national men's soccer/football team hasn't had anywhere near the success as their women's squad. Many of the ingredients appear to be there: large sports infrastructure, huge talent pool, a sport that doesn't favor a particular body type, and generally strong team spirit. Well, this is a book that attempts to answer that question and mostly does a pretty good job of it.
Simons is an Englishman who came to China as a university student in the late '80s, fell in love with the country, and hustled his way into a position to return and make a life there. He combined a few contacts in sports promotion and media with his Chinese language skills and an entrepreneurial spirit to build a multifaceted career in the just-developing Chinese television market. Be warned, it takes a good 100 pages of his backstory before the soccer content really gets going. But that's OK, because his stories about being a Westerner in Beijing when Westerners were relatively scarce are well-told. They're also en excellent reminder of the rapidity of China's growth and opening to the outside that's happened in the last 20 years. Indeed, probably the best part of the book are Simons' eyewitness accounts the Tienanmen Square protests and the bloody response.
The latter 2/3 of the book cover the choppy (and often corrupt) history of modern Chinese soccer, both at the national and and club level, along with the story of his own efforts to start an English-style amateur football club,and all the logistical, financial, and bureaucratic obstacles that faced. Simons lays the lion's share of the blame for the pathetic state of Chinese pro and national soccer at the door of the central government.... Read more ›
Simons is an Englishman who came to China as a university student in the late '80s, fell in love with the country, and hustled his way into a position to return and make a life there. He combined a few contacts in sports promotion and media with his Chinese language skills and an entrepreneurial spirit to build a multifaceted career in the just-developing Chinese television market. Be warned, it takes a good 100 pages of his backstory before the soccer content really gets going. But that's OK, because his stories about being a Westerner in Beijing when Westerners were relatively scarce are well-told. They're also en excellent reminder of the rapidity of China's growth and opening to the outside that's happened in the last 20 years. Indeed, probably the best part of the book are Simons' eyewitness accounts the Tienanmen Square protests and the bloody response.
The latter 2/3 of the book cover the choppy (and often corrupt) history of modern Chinese soccer, both at the national and and club level, along with the story of his own efforts to start an English-style amateur football club,and all the logistical, financial, and bureaucratic obstacles that faced. Simons lays the lion's share of the blame for the pathetic state of Chinese pro and national soccer at the door of the central government.... Read more ›
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
many football books about other countries just talk about how they have developed and grown and talk about their famous teams. This cannot be written about china as their football is not developed in such a way. The football history they have starts in the 3rd century with a game credited as the birth of football. fast forward 800 years and Rowan Simons could not find a place to play. This book is as much about a foreigner in china as it is football. This is the story of one mans mission to change a countries sporting psyche taking him from the tiananmen square protests to tv personality.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By M. French
Format:Hardcover
An interesting book on China but Rowan can come across as a bit too clever for his own good. Worth a read to maybe get a feel for what China thinks about football but not for those looking for a more human interest story
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