Xinhuanet, Fuzhou, February 1st: Youth in Jinjiang in the name of basketball
Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Yang
It is rare that a county-level city can gather all the elements of a sport. Basketball in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, appropriately explains this rare charm. Whether it is “wild ball” in the village or the professional arena, whether it is men’s basketball or women’s basketball, whether it is hosting games or manufacturing equipment, Jinjiang regards basketball as an endless pursuit. On February 1, Jinjiang will usher in a youth basketball feast-Jinjiang Cultural Tourism Group 2026 “Samaranch Cup” Asian Basketball Masters Invitational Tournament.
Basketball pulse rooted in local area
The story of basketball in Jinjiang originated from the countryside and flourished in the streets. Gong Songlin, vice president of the Fujian Provincial Basketball Association and head coach of the Fujian Men’s Basketball Youth Team, came out of Jinjiang and played in the Chinese Men’s Basketball Professional League (CBA). In his childhood, basketball was already a part of his life.
“When I was in elementary school, there was a basketball game in the village. When I passed the stadium after school, the stadium was full of people.” Gong Songlin said, “Southern Fujian people have a lot of energy in their character and like sports with fierce confrontation.”
In 2025, as the head coach, Gong Songlin led the Jinjiang team to win the 2025 National Harmony Country Basketball Competition (Village BA) championship. Some of the team members run businesses and some are physical education teachers. Although they are amateur players, they are all the “ball kings” in various towns, streets and villages. Each person participates in more than 100 “wild ball” games every year.
Many players in the team are from Chidian Town. There are about 70 basketball courts here, covering every village. Chidian Village in Chidian Town even has its own village-level basketball association.
How popular is basketball here? The “Ziya Cup” basketball game held in Chidian Village in 2025 played 16 games over 8 nights, with a total of about 30,000 spectators, and the number of spectators watching a single game often reached thousands. The atmosphere at the scene was professional and warm, with Hokkien and Mandarin interspersed in the on-site commentary, and a professional execution company took photos and broadcast live.
The reason why it is called “Ziya Cup” is because Li Guan, a Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty, was named “Ziya” and was regarded as the ancestor of the Chidian people. According to Wang Zhenfeng, deputy mayor of Chidian Town, folk competitions give full play to grassroots wisdom and strong community mobilization capabilities, and are often combined with charity and traditional festivals. Each team is dominated by local villagers, reflecting the simplest sense of belonging.
Cai Huiqiong, Party Secretary and Director of the Jinjiang Municipal Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, said that basketball games have become the best alternative to change customs, effectively reducing stereotypes such as card tables and wine tables; basketball games are also used to celebrate happy events such as college entrance examinations, marriages, and birthdays. Some communities plan to build pastoral complexes integrating “agriculture, sports, and tourism” around basketball parks to transform sports traffic into sustained industrial income.
In Jinjiang, basketball has become a bond between neighbors and a concrete expression of the spirit of “love to fight and dare to win”. There are more than 1,900 lighted basketball courts in the city, and an average of more than 1,000 private events are held every year, forming a grand situation where “every village has a court and there is a ball to watch every day.”
Sticking to professional basketball resonates deeply with the city
Professional basketball usually prefers big cities such as provincial capitals, and Jinjiang is home to two professional clubs, Xunxing (CBA) and Zhongteng (WCBA).
Wu Bolan, executive director of Fujian Xunxing Basketball Club, attributed the club’s decades of persistence to the high degree of consistency between strategic choices and spiritual core. Jinjiang is not only the geographical home ground, but also the “spiritual root of the city”. She said that the spirit of perseverance, hard work and innovation contained in the “Jinjiang Experience” will continue to be passed on through the language of basketball. Jinjiang supports Xunxing in terms of policy support, venue guarantees, title sponsorship, etc., forming a high degree of mutual trust and long-term stable partnership; the club is deeply integrated with the local private economic ecology, achieving an improvement in commercial value and social value; compared with first-tier cities, the team’s operations in Jinjiang are more cost-effective, and the loyalty and cohesion of local fans are higher.
The average attendance rate of Jinjiang Zuchang Gymnasium, home of the Fujian Men’s Basketball Team, ranks among the top in the CBA, with attendance rates at core games often reaching over 70%. The proportion of young fans and family viewers has increased significantly in recent years. As the only CBA team in Fujian Province, it has attracted a large number of fans from other cities in the province to Jinjiang to watch the game. The club maintains close interaction with local fans, holds regular fan symposiums, invites representatives of fan associations and senior fans to participate, and listens to suggestions; organizes stars to participate in training camp activities, meet-and-greet events, and autograph and photo activities; reserves seats for the core fan association in the cheering square; organizes online guessing, ticket lottery and other activities through social media.
The Fujian Zhongteng Women’s Basketball Club, which competes in the WCBA, also benefited from this fertile soil. Chen Rui, general manager of the club, said frankly that he chose Jinjiang because of its “basketball soil that is not inferior to that of big cities.” Passionate fans and a lively atmosphere allow the club to successfully achieve initial fan accumulation and long-term fan culture accumulation. Some die-hard fans have supported the club since its inception. The club sets reasonable ticket prices based on market rules, and some fans purchase annual tickets and attend every game.
Chen Rui said that Jinjiang provides support to the team in terms of hosting games, training, and living security, and the team strives to give back to Jinjiang with high-quality games and training of reserve talents. In the future, the club plans to go deep into the grassroots and bring the team closer to local fans through activities such as “professional basketball enters campus communities and supports private events”.
Wu Bolan believes that Jinjiang’s home court is not only a competitive arena, but also the spiritual home of all Fujian basketball fans. On the one hand, the professional league has driven the development of sports venue operations, media communication, youth training and other aspects in Jinjiang. At the same time, the team’s fighting image resonates with the city’s spirit. Every home game is a concentrated display of the city’s spirit. On the other hand, Jinjiang’s strong folk basketball demand and profound fan culture provide the club with stable box office revenue, business cooperation and community support. The home court loyalty in the fan culture is a buffer for the team to deal with record fluctuations.
Cai Huiqiong said that Jinjiang has made fundamental contributions to Chinese professional basketball. The “integration of sports and education” talent training system has been operating for nearly 30 years. Through cooperation between grassroots schools, professional clubs and universities, players can receive systematic training while ensuring cultural courses. In the past 15 years, Jinjiang has sent a large number of talents to provincial and above echelon teams and clubs, and 4 people have entered the CBA arena.
The basketball city’s transition from “manufacturing shoes and clothing” to “building an ecology”
The breadth, depth and sustainability of Jinjiang’s basketball story are also supported by a huge industrial matrix: Anta, 361°, Xtep and other sports brands have gone global from here. In 2025, Jinjiang’s annual output of sports shoes will exceed 1.5 billion pairs. Today, the company is undergoing a profound role transition, upgrading from a basketball equipment manufacturer to a builder of the basketball ecology.
According to the relevant person in charge of 361°, on the one hand, the company signed a contract with Jokic, the most valuable player of the National Basketball Association (NBA), launched the JOKER series of signature sneakers, integrated international basketball resources, and expanded brand influence. On the other hand, it has transformed from manufacturing to service and created its own IP “on fire” grassroots basketball series. Since its establishment in 2020, the competition has covered the whole country and added youth groups. In the 2025 season, four major series of competitions including national competitions and overseas competitions have been set up. It has become a service platform connecting grassroots basketball enthusiasts.
Cai Huiqiong said that Jinjiang enterprises directly sponsor a large number of grassroots events every year, establishing an emotional bond between brands and consumers that goes beyond consumption. Local companies not only sponsor basketball events, but also often form teams to compete. Basketball has become an important management tool to condense corporate culture and enhance team morale. In the future, Jinjiang will implement a series of plans to build a comprehensive “basketball-friendly society”, including improving basketball infrastructure, creating an international, domestic and independent IP competition system, ensuring smooth growth channels for young basketball talents, and making basketball an engine that drives community vitality and rural revitalization.
The “Samaranch Cup” Asian Basketball Masters Invitational Tournament came into being under this background. This tournament has set up 6 U-series youth groups from U9 to U17 and an adult 3V3 competition format, attracting the active participation of 104 teams, including 20 teams from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries and regions.
Cai Huiqiong said that the location of this event in Jinjiang is no accident, but the natural fruit of Jinjiang’s mature basketball ecology. The hosting of the event marks Jinjiang’s leap from a “strong basketball industry city” to a “famous city for basketball events.” (over)
