Bucking dire predictions of domestic disharmony in China during
soccer's World Cup finals, an online survey has revealed that more
than 80 percent of Chinese women plan to watch at least some of the
matches.
?
Reports in the Chinese media in the run-up to the tournament
forecast a war between the sexes as men stayed up into the small
hours to watch the action from Germany.
"Surprisingly there is a considerable share of the female
audience who are open to watching the game," said Rene Bos of
marketing information provider AC Nielsen, who conducted the
survey.
"In fact, according to findings in our online study, only 15
percent of females have indicated no interest in the game."
Despite China's failure to qualify for the finals, the survey
revealed that 30 percent of the women were "very much interested"
in watching matches. Two-thirds of male respondents expressed the
same level of interest with 65 percent intending to watch "as much
as possible" of the finals.
Although Brazil are the overwhelming favorite team of more than
a third of those surveyed, England, led by photogenic skipper David
Beckham, enjoy the backing of 18 percent of Chinese women.
In spite of the apparent consensus, the late night broadcast of
World Cup matches has already contributed to one tragedy in the
southwestern province of Sichuan.
The Tianfu Morning Post reported that a woman committed suicide
by leaping from the 17th floor of an apartment building in Chengdu
after a row with her boyfriend, who wanted to watch a World Cup
match in the early hours of Sunday morning.
(Reuters via China Daily June 15, 2006)