“Twenty years ago I came to China looking for a game of football with the locals and couldn't find a team to join. Having learned Chinese, for years I tried explaining what football meant via my job as a TV presenter, but viewers only saw the glamour of the elite clubs and did not take the game into their lives.
Part in protest, part in solidarity, and always in hope, it was ten years ago that I started using my position inside the Chinese media to kick back and embarked on a peaceful mission to reinvent football in the land without boots, something that should have happened hundreds of years ago...”
Rowan Simons
Rowan Simons has lived (and played football) in China for 20 years. No other westerner will communicate to an audience more clearly what it is like to live and work and play in China. Rowan speaks fluent Chinese and loves the country and its people. He has lived here for so long that he understands the mentality but at the same time he is still very much a down-to-earth football fan whose efforts to encourage people to play challenges the very political foundations of sports in China today.
Bamboo Goalposts
Only Rowan could write this book. It opens with his arrival in China as a student and takes us through the changes in China till the present day, concluding with serious questions about what sport really means to the Chinese nation. And all the way through he has been playing football and trying to introduce its amateur spirit to the Chinese people. The obstacles, highs and lows, bureaucracy, historical events, collaborations and life he has experienced along the way create a book which gives a unique insight into China via an activity we all understand, the perfect bridge into this very different world.
Thoroughly entertaining, extremely informative and revealing, funny and fascinating, the most provocative book on Chinese sport you could possibly read before the 2008 Olympics.
Selected Media Appearances (both English and Chinese media)
- CCTV’s Dialogue discussing Sino-Japanese Ties & Sports Rivalry
- USATODAY
- BBC
- International Herald Tribune
- China.org.cn
- Sina.com.cn
- Shanghai Football Forum
- Sohu.com
- Shanghai Evening Post
- Todaysports.cn
- China Economic Daily
Notes to Editors
• Bamboo Goalposts will be published in hardback on 2 May 2008 by Macmillan, priced £10.99
• Rowan Simons is available for interview upon request. Please contact Pan Macmillan Asia.
• Manuscript are available upon request
• A jacket image and author photo are available upon request
• Rowan Simons is one of the most respected international experts in the Chinese TV industry with twenty years experience in PRC media production, distribution, broadcasting, advertising and media research. He is an adviser to myriad Chinese media organisations including China International TV Corporation, the Provincial TV Stations Exchange Group and the City TV Stations Research Committee. He plays football at least once a week. He is the Chairman of ClubFootball (http://www.clubfootball.com.cn/
Bamboo Goalposts
By Rowan Simons
Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9780230707023
Trade Paperback Price: £ 10.99
Release Date: May 2 2008
Macmillan
