China has a personal connection to the World Cup — those annoying vuvuzelas, which are blown all the time during the match, are almost all made in China. A handful of factories in two cities, flooded with orders since November, have just finished production. But though their production value increased by 50 per cent, they didn’t make a killing — their profit margins are just 5 per cent with distributors getting most of the money. And, of course, most of the World Cup memorabilia have also been made here. Football jerseys are also selling like hot cakes here for 75 yuan a piece, accurate copies of the originals down to the last detail.
China qualified for the 2002 World Cup, but lost every match. Not surprisingly, the Chinese laugh derisively when they talk about their football team, in contrast to their pride in their country’s performance in other sports. China failed to qualify for this World Cup, but 1,000 Chinese are in South Africa to cheer their old allies, the North Koreans, on tickets given by the North Korean Sports Committee in Beijing. These include Chinese actors, singers and sports officials who would otherwise have been there to cheer the Chinese team.