Why are the crowds at the Cup of China so subdued?

GF2445 · Nov 2, 2013

I've noticed over the last couple of years, that the crowds at the Cup of China seem much quieter in general (Especially in the Dance event!)
The only time when the crowds explode is when a skater/couple skate the lights out or when a skater/couple from China skates.

Wonder why?

Icey · Nov 2, 2013

Your answer is in your last sentence. Explosions and bravos should be reserved for the best.

icedinn · Nov 2, 2013

I actually respect how its reserved. I dont want people being loud all over the place distracting skaters.

hippomoomin · Nov 2, 2013

It might be related to the empty seats, which I didn't expect. I remember last year in Shanghai the stadium seemed almost full.

Tonichelle · Nov 2, 2013

looks like a small crowd, they're further from the ice (which the way the audio is for this event it's obviously not picking up sound as well as SA and SC did), and isn't it a culture thing?

hippomoomin · Nov 2, 2013

If it is, its more of Beijing culture vs. Shanghai culture :laugh:

spikydurian · Nov 2, 2013

The inscrutable Chinese!

GF2445 · Nov 2, 2013

hippomoomin said:
If it is, its more of Beijing culture vs. Shanghai culture

They have mainly held this event in Shanghai so it mightve just been a fact that there was a lack of exposure in Beijing to skating. Even though the stadium looked more empty, i think the actual number of people who attended wasn't as low as it appeared.

sky_fly20 · Nov 2, 2013

didnt realise this was held in Beiing
explains the mostly empty seats

also you can also factor cultural
China and most asian countries are not as extroverted as North Americans

ice coverage · Nov 2, 2013

Tonichelle said:
... and isn't it a culture thing?

spikydurian said:
The inscrutable Chinese!

sky_fly20 said:
... also you can also factor cultural
China and most asian countries are not as extroverted as North Americans

The inscrutable/cultural theory strikes me as insupportable.

How do you explain the very audible enthusiasm at skating events in Japan and Korea?

hippomoomin said:
If it is, its more of Beijing culture vs. Shanghai culture

LOL, great answer. :laugh:

treeloving · Nov 2, 2013

The avenue in Shanghai is full because they give free a lot of free tickets to employees in the sponsor company.

SaraM · Nov 2, 2013

treeloving said:
The avenue in Shanghai is full because they give free a lot of free tickets to employees in the sponsor company.

well.. that actually sound like a great idea to get those empty seats fulled up

bigsisjiejie · Nov 2, 2013

i'm not sure what's going on. It's not a Beijing vs Shanghai thing; if anything, Beijingers are much more knowledgeable and interested in skating then Shanghainese (and the giving away of free tickets might have had something to do with the events held in Shanghai). I'm not in Beijing now so can't give first-hand knowledge, but I was at every CoC held in Beijing between 2003-2005 and 2008-2010 (same venue as now) and crowds were reasonably substantial and quite lively, especially Friday nights and all Saturday. That was when Samsung was the sponsor. (The competition was moved to Nanjing in 2006, an unnatural location for skating, and Harbin in 2007, a hotbed of skating) due to the closure and renovation of the BJ venue for the Olympics--so I'm not sure about crowds at those events.)

But from what I've seen on the video so far, the competition this year has been lackluster, with skater withdrawals, fewer recognizable "big names" and crappy skating. The people that managed to get to the stands aren't idiots, and probably see there's not much to get excited about. Dance is never a big thing for the Chinese, which is why they tend to schedule it first up of the disciplines, since Fridays due to traffic it's difficult for people to get to the venue before about 19:00.

Moment · Nov 2, 2013

Probably because they were not impressed by the performances.

bigsisjiejie · Nov 2, 2013

GF2445 said:
They have mainly held this event in Shanghai so it mightve just been a fact that there was a lack of exposure in Beijing to skating. Even though the stadium looked more empty, i think the actual number of people who attended wasn't as low as it appeared.

Wrong. Shanghai was an aberration location--see my answer above. Beijingers know their skating. It is possible the camera angles aren't capturing the people actually there. This is also a very large venue, 18,000 seats which is really too big for figure skating and will never get filled up.

Skating Moose · Nov 2, 2013

I've been living in China for the last few years and have had the pleasure of working at the last few international skating events here, including events in Harbin, Beijing and Shanghai. From my experience, Chinese crowds tend to be extremely patriotic and reserve their excitement for homegrown skaters and some of the really big names from abroad. This increases depending on the city - Shanghai being relatively cosmopolitan and having a large international population is more western in their behaviour. Beijing is a little less lively and Harbin can be almost icy (at the Winter University Games, no Chinese female skaters made the top group and a large chunk of the audience left before this group started despite it containing the likes of Kiira Korpi).

Having said this, the crowds are gradually becoming a little more open... I think... maybe?

This is just my perception and others are welcome to disagree, but even a Chinese skater I was talking to recently said that crowds in Japan and other countries are much more lively and generally welcoming of international competitors.

Regarding Shanghai vs Beijing, the 2011 & 2012 Cups of China were in Shanghai, this year back to Beijing, but next year it will be back to Shanghai again as a trial run for the World Championships in 2015 which will be in Shanghai.

noidont · Nov 2, 2013

Oh people are so nice. I'm going to give the honest answer: Chinese people, excluding the diehard fans, which is in the number of hundreds, don't know **** about figure skating. The public doesn't, or doesn't know how to appreciate things they don't understand, and doing certain courtesy things like applauding just to be polite is just not a thing in China. People here react to things more in a natural order. When a skater falls all over the place some might feel no applaud is deserved.

That being said, the two CoCs I attended in Shanghai the past years looked better than this one. It was almost a full house after dance in free skate last year and the arena is brand new and huge. From where I saw, in the VIP seats closer to the rink were mostly Japanese people, serious, traveling fans. A lot of families got free tickets from work it looked like. You could also buy tickets at the door through those illegal vendors for dirt cheap. I paid about 40 US dollars for everything and I heard today you could buy an all-day free skate ticket for 2 US dollars in Beijing...

For those who want to come to 2015 Worlds, the Shanghai arena itself is truly gorgeous at night, nothing like it, but don't count on the seats getting anywhere close to the ice. It's completely frustrating.

Jaana · Nov 2, 2013

I would not call the audience subdued, the good performances got the deserved applause.

Why are the crowds at the Cup of China so subdued?

GF2445

Icey

icedinn

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hippomoomin

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll

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GF2445

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