The Strange Afterlife of an American Football Story from China

In 2014, the writer Christopher Beam published a humorous, heartwarming story in The New Republic about an unlikely team of American football enthusiasts in Chongqing who went on to defeat their archrivals in Shanghai to win a championship. The piece was optioned by Sony Pictures, and had some big names attached, but was ultimately never made — not, at least, by an American studio. Eleven years later, Chris has written about a film that was made: Clash, produced by iQiyi, hit theaters in China earlier this year and followed the Chongqing Dockers in the same story arc, but with important and telling differences. His new story was published in The Atlantic, and he talks to me about the Dockers and the long, strange story of the film that wasn't and the one that was.

03:50 – The Meaning of Chinese YOLO

05:33 – Chris’s First Meeting With the Chongqing Team

13:11 – Chris McLaurin’s Background

15:54 – American Football as a Symbol of Masculinity

19:50 – The Failed Hollywood Adaptation

25:34 – First Impressions of the Film

31:55 – Bridging Perspectives: Can a Movie Speak To Both Sides?

36:42 – A Lost Moment in Globalization

Paying it Forward: Viola Zhou

Recommendations: 

Chris: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte (short story collection)

Kaiser: Becoming Led Zeppelin (documentary); the Beijing-based artist Michael Cherney.

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