"American football in China" is a sport/location combo that at first sounds like a joke, like “Jamaican bobsled team.” But according to the rule that, in a country of 1.3 billion people, everything is happening somewhere, the existence of Chinese football should come as no surprise....

This week we're delighted to be joined by Christopher Beam, author of the passage quoted above, which we unceremoniously filched from his fantastic New Republic essay about his year with the Chongqing Dockers, one of the many new amateur football teams that has sprung up in China as of late. And if you haven't read the piece, you should stop what you're doing and check it out now.

If you like this show, be sure to check out Christopher's other excellent essay on tackling 12 year old ping pong players in Shichahai. And also be sure to subscribe through iTunes to get notified of new episodes of Sinica as we release them. Our custom feed address is http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica. And if you have questions or suggestions for the show, please feel welcome to reach out to us anytime by email at sinica@popupchinese.com too. [standalone mp3 file]