Cheers, sweats, tension and passion — these accompany every player on the basketball court. In Shenzhen, a group of girls, with passion for the sport, witness the growth of basketball in the city.

Zhou Tong, born in 1992, used to be the star of the women’s basketball team of Beijing Normal University. Drafted into the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA), the top-tier women’s basketball league in the 2016-2017 season, Zhou became a teacher with Shenzhen Middle School in 2018.

On her Weibo, Zhou wrote, “Once I used to be the kid who would watch boys running on the basketball court. Hopefully, girls won’t need to find excuses to justify their passion for basketball in the future.”

Girls, with physical difference from boys, can still feel the excitement of fighting on the court, and can develop a passion for the sport, she said.

Apart from teaching PE lessons, Zhou is also in charge of coaching the women’s basketball team, who trains four hours each week. “They are regular students who love basketball, and have to face the challenging academic learning tasks just like the others.”

Strict to a formidable degree on the court, Zhou is gentle like a big sister to her students in daily life.

“I see in them the girl I used to be,” she said. “Sometimes they would give themselves a break when I was not watching, but could really exert themselves when fully motivated.”

“The spirit of basketball is passed on from generation to generation, and the achievements are gained from day to day through hard work. It’s essential not to give up and keep the passion. Girls can prove themselves and progress.”

Having retired from professional basketball, Zhou still plays in amateur games and represents Shenzhen in a Guangdong provincial basketball tournament.

Ma Xiaopan, a teacher with Shenzhen Bay School, is a top-level basketball referee.

Born in Anhui Province, Ma migrated to Shenzhen with her family in 2008 and went to Shenzhen No. 2 Experimental School, where she joined the school’s basketball team.

In 2015, Ma enrolled in Beijing Normal University and played in the Women’s Chinese University Basketball Association (WCUBA). A year later, Ma and her teammates won the championship of the league. In her senior year in college, Ma was forced to retire because of a tendon injury, but she didn’t want to leave the court. She then chose to be a referee.

“From my personal experience, I conclude that the ratio of male and female referees on the court is about 8 to 1,” Ma said. “A woman referee is a rare species.”

Ma is continuing to learn and progress. “My aim is to pass the qualification exam of a national-level referee and someday serve as a referee in the CUBA games,” she said.

Unlike Zhou and Ma, Cha Li, at 163 cm tall, hasn’t trained professionally.

Out of pure passion, Cha, a native Shenzhen girl, is a basketball vlogger with over a million followers on Douyin.

In August 2018, Cha uploaded on the platform a short video of herself playing basketball on the platform, which soon attracted attention. In October that year, she played in an amateur game organized by Hupu.com and won the championship of the Shenzhen stop. Her fierce style on the court and a three-pointer recorded by a video clip got nearly a million likes online.

“I worked in HR in the finance industry before I quit my regular job to become a full-time vlogger in 2020,” she said. Short videos, she thinks, can help people see the charms of basketball and give more women the courage to set their feet on the court.

Now her income comes from participating in amateur games, business promotions and ads for her videos now.

“About five years ago, girls could hardly find opportunities to play games once they have had left campus,” Cha said. “Things have improved a lot. A lot more women play basketball in Shenzhen now, and they have better skills. Male players are also giving more respect to women by playing games seriously.”

(Debra Li)