Post by hellboy87 on Aug 8, 2012 17:51:20 GMT -5
Europeans Still Learning About Asia
By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
Published: August 8, 2012
DUBLIN — Anyone seeking a reliable gauge of European influence in Asia need only check out the Juventus jerseys at this coming Saturday’s Supercoppa clash in the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, the Manchester United fans thronging the bars of Clarke Quay in Singapore or the well-thumbed newspaper devoted to soccer on the seat next to the driver in a Yangon cab.
“If the United States has Hollywood” to win hearts and minds in Asia, “then Europe has the Champions League, the soccer. It’s huge here,” said Ronan Lenihan, a Singapore-based project executive with the Asia-Europe Foundation and a co-author of “Asia in the Eyes of Europe: Images of a Rising Giant,” a new book from the German Council on Foreign Relations that explores how Europeans view Asia.
Asians’ love affair with European soccer is increasingly backed by cash. They are investing in the game that Europe does so well, with the latest indication last week when the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. announced that its subsidiary, China Railway 15th Bureau Group, was in talks with Inter Milan, the storied European club, to build a home stadium for the Italians by 2017. The growing list of Asian investors or investor hopefuls in European soccer now includes the Chinese, Thais, Malaysians, Hong Kongers and Singaporeans.
Mr. Lenihan said that in Thailand, soccer “was one of the main things that resonated with people.” Elsewhere, he said, “Malaysian money now owns two clubs in the U.K.,” and “there was this Singapore bid for Liverpool,” when the businessman Peter Lim tried to buy the Merseyside club in 2010. Additionally, Birmingham City is owned by Carson Yeung, a Hong Kong billionaire.
Europeans are slowly adjusting their view of Asia, said Mr. Lenihan. Yet for now, they still know too little about this large and diverse continent, he said.
“I think Europeans are only starting to catch up now in terms of their knowledge of Asia,” he said. “There is this idea of a rising Asia and greater interest.”
The book goes further, saying in its introduction that many Europeans have only a vague notion of Asia, seeing it as “probably the most mysterious of continents.” Asia is “a relatively hazy blind spot in Europe’s mental map of the world,” the authors wrote, a result partly of its enormous ethnic, religious and political diversity. For their part, Asians have long known far more about Europe, said Mr. Lenihan, a legacy of hundreds of years of European colonial rule in parts of the continent.
Others, principally Asians, say some arrogance lies behind Europe’s lack of information. That view is suggested by a separate study of Asian perceptions of Europe by the foundation, which is part of the Asia-Europe Meeting, an inter-regional forum that includes the European Commission, the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and 46 European and Asian nations.
In surveys for the study of how Europeans view Asia, conducted in eight E.U. nations, key words used by participants included Orientalist clichés like “exotic” but also, more fact-based, “far away.”
Many Europeans regarded Asia as having a “strong economy” and “cheap trade” and being “overpopulated.” Other terms included “poor,” “floods” and “tsunami,” as well as “developing,” “exporters” and “money.” Food figured highly, with “spices” and “rice” common choices, as were the admiring terms “history” and “culture.”
Over all, attitudes were positive, said Mr. Lenihan, and, in the introduction, the authors, drawn from a range of universities and the foundation, wrote: “Our findings suggest that Europeans expect Asia to play an increasingly prominent role throughout the 21st century.”
Yet despite that and despite the power of soccer friendships, there is also discomfort at Asia’s rise.
“What Europeans mean and understand by ‘Asia’s rise’ is the emergence of a global economic and demographic threat, societies that face severe difficulties and suffering from dictatorship to natural disaster, and an increasing political influence that is strictly limited to individual Asian countries like China, India and Japan,” the authors wrote.
Meanwhile, Massimo Moratti, owner of Inter Milan, is happy about the future, now that Chinese money seems to be on board.
Inter Milan didn’t identify who was involved, saying only on its Web site that it was “Chinese investors.”
“The Moratti family will keep the control of the company while the group of Chinese investors will became the second-largest shareholder,” it said.
China’s state-owned railway construction companies, which have been hit by a slowing economy at home and by scandals that have included the fall of the railway minister on corruption charges and a fatal high-speed train crash last year, are seeking opportunities abroad with renewed vigor. The new stadium at San Donato in Milan will be one of the biggest in Europe, according to CCTV, the state broadcaster.
But the deal isn’t just about hardware. Chinese soccer is in a pitiable state because of endemic corruption and a lack of professionalism, and there are plans for Italy, home to some of the world’s greatest teams, to train Chinese players, especially young ones, in the new stadium, CCTV reported. An opportunity to deepen friendship between Asia and Europe, perhaps.
“We can provide some experience for China, especially the successful experience on Italian football,” Mr. Moratti said.
By DIDI KIRSTEN TATLOW
Published: August 8, 2012
DUBLIN — Anyone seeking a reliable gauge of European influence in Asia need only check out the Juventus jerseys at this coming Saturday’s Supercoppa clash in the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, the Manchester United fans thronging the bars of Clarke Quay in Singapore or the well-thumbed newspaper devoted to soccer on the seat next to the driver in a Yangon cab.
“If the United States has Hollywood” to win hearts and minds in Asia, “then Europe has the Champions League, the soccer. It’s huge here,” said Ronan Lenihan, a Singapore-based project executive with the Asia-Europe Foundation and a co-author of “Asia in the Eyes of Europe: Images of a Rising Giant,” a new book from the German Council on Foreign Relations that explores how Europeans view Asia.
Asians’ love affair with European soccer is increasingly backed by cash. They are investing in the game that Europe does so well, with the latest indication last week when the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. announced that its subsidiary, China Railway 15th Bureau Group, was in talks with Inter Milan, the storied European club, to build a home stadium for the Italians by 2017. The growing list of Asian investors or investor hopefuls in European soccer now includes the Chinese, Thais, Malaysians, Hong Kongers and Singaporeans.
Mr. Lenihan said that in Thailand, soccer “was one of the main things that resonated with people.” Elsewhere, he said, “Malaysian money now owns two clubs in the U.K.,” and “there was this Singapore bid for Liverpool,” when the businessman Peter Lim tried to buy the Merseyside club in 2010. Additionally, Birmingham City is owned by Carson Yeung, a Hong Kong billionaire.
Europeans are slowly adjusting their view of Asia, said Mr. Lenihan. Yet for now, they still know too little about this large and diverse continent, he said.
“I think Europeans are only starting to catch up now in terms of their knowledge of Asia,” he said. “There is this idea of a rising Asia and greater interest.”
The book goes further, saying in its introduction that many Europeans have only a vague notion of Asia, seeing it as “probably the most mysterious of continents.” Asia is “a relatively hazy blind spot in Europe’s mental map of the world,” the authors wrote, a result partly of its enormous ethnic, religious and political diversity. For their part, Asians have long known far more about Europe, said Mr. Lenihan, a legacy of hundreds of years of European colonial rule in parts of the continent.
Others, principally Asians, say some arrogance lies behind Europe’s lack of information. That view is suggested by a separate study of Asian perceptions of Europe by the foundation, which is part of the Asia-Europe Meeting, an inter-regional forum that includes the European Commission, the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and 46 European and Asian nations.
In surveys for the study of how Europeans view Asia, conducted in eight E.U. nations, key words used by participants included Orientalist clichés like “exotic” but also, more fact-based, “far away.”
Many Europeans regarded Asia as having a “strong economy” and “cheap trade” and being “overpopulated.” Other terms included “poor,” “floods” and “tsunami,” as well as “developing,” “exporters” and “money.” Food figured highly, with “spices” and “rice” common choices, as were the admiring terms “history” and “culture.”
Over all, attitudes were positive, said Mr. Lenihan, and, in the introduction, the authors, drawn from a range of universities and the foundation, wrote: “Our findings suggest that Europeans expect Asia to play an increasingly prominent role throughout the 21st century.”
Yet despite that and despite the power of soccer friendships, there is also discomfort at Asia’s rise.
“What Europeans mean and understand by ‘Asia’s rise’ is the emergence of a global economic and demographic threat, societies that face severe difficulties and suffering from dictatorship to natural disaster, and an increasing political influence that is strictly limited to individual Asian countries like China, India and Japan,” the authors wrote.
Meanwhile, Massimo Moratti, owner of Inter Milan, is happy about the future, now that Chinese money seems to be on board.
Inter Milan didn’t identify who was involved, saying only on its Web site that it was “Chinese investors.”
“The Moratti family will keep the control of the company while the group of Chinese investors will became the second-largest shareholder,” it said.
China’s state-owned railway construction companies, which have been hit by a slowing economy at home and by scandals that have included the fall of the railway minister on corruption charges and a fatal high-speed train crash last year, are seeking opportunities abroad with renewed vigor. The new stadium at San Donato in Milan will be one of the biggest in Europe, according to CCTV, the state broadcaster.
But the deal isn’t just about hardware. Chinese soccer is in a pitiable state because of endemic corruption and a lack of professionalism, and there are plans for Italy, home to some of the world’s greatest teams, to train Chinese players, especially young ones, in the new stadium, CCTV reported. An opportunity to deepen friendship between Asia and Europe, perhaps.
“We can provide some experience for China, especially the successful experience on Italian football,” Mr. Moratti said.