NBA’s Nets celebrate Lunar New Year, including Chinese take on US national anthem
Brooklyn Nets bring US and Chinese cultures together before game against Sacramento Kings, and traditional suona instrument plays a part
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Taking Lunar New Year to Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets held a celebration of two cultures at their Lunar New Year game this week, with lai see distributed to fans and the US national anthem played using the traditional Chinese suona.
On an evening the NBA franchise said was part of its approach to “building unity and celebrating culture”, player introductions were made in Mandarin and Chinese rapper PACT performed at half-time.
One attention-grabbing moment was the performance of “Star Spangled Banner” before tip-off by Guo Yazhi and Andrew Chan, two members of the Bard US-China Music Institute.
The pair used the double reed suona, which is traditionally played during weddings or funerals, in front of a Barclays Centre crowd of more than 16,000 that included the likes of Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US, and Nets owner Joe Tsai.
Tsai, the chairman of Alibaba Group which owns the South China Morning Post, is known to be a firm believer in sports having an important role in promoting and improving the China-US relationship.
In an Instagram post, Xie hailed his “thrilling night in celebration of the Chinese New Year”, adding “let’s keep the energy going strong throughout the year ahead”.
