KU News Release

Play-by-play action to be broadcast in Chinese during KU men’s basketball game

Sophomore Julian Wright is sure to thrill the Chinese audience with his acrobatic plays.

LAWRENCE — How do you say “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” in Chinese? Listen to the University of Kansas men’s basketball game next Tuesday to find out.

The Nov. 28 game will be broadcast in Chinese and streamed on the Kansas Athletics Web site. The event is sponsored by KU’s Confucius Institute. Tip off is at 7 p.m.

Announcers Zhiqun “James” Liang and Sheree Willis will call the action as KU takes on Dartmouth live from Allen Fieldhouse. The event marks the first time in Big 12 history that a game has been broadcast in Chinese.

Liang, a visiting scholar and senior adviser to the executive director at the Confucius Institute, has an extensive background in basketball, including four years as a starting guard for the Central China Huazhong Normal University basketball team. Willis is the associate executive director of the Confucius Institute.

A group of students from Liang’s alma mater will gather in Wuhan, China, to listen to the broadcast. A similar gathering involving KU students and faculty will take place at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. Because of technical difficulties, the event at the Plum Tree Restaurant in Lawrence has been cancelled. A listening party will also be held at Bo Lings, 4800 Main St., Kansas City, Mo.

In conjunction with the broadcast, the Confucius Institute will produce a glossary of basketball terms in Chinese and English to be distributed to Chinese language students at KU and at high schools throughout the state.

KU’s Confucius Institute was the fourth such institute to open in the United States. Other institutes are operated by University of Maryland, Chicago Public Schools and New York’s China Institute.

China has a long-term goal of establishing more than 100 Confucius Institutes and estimates that by 2010, nearly 100 million people worldwide will have learned Chinese as a foreign language.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.