Chris Clark (left), a former junior ice hockey coach in the US, is a firm believer in Cong Peien (right), the 18-year-old founder of KanKan Sports, a camp that teaches popular US sports to students set to study abroad. Cui Meng / China Daily

18-year-old uses athletics to bring cultures together

Initiated by a Beijing teenager, a fledgling sports education program has taken off to bridge the gap between different college cultures in China and the United States.

Academic pace-setters but poor athletes was Cong Peien's opinion of Chinese overseas students when he visited a US university during his summer vocation in 2009.

"They are isolated and struggle to blend in with the mainstream at US colleges as they have little interest in sports," said Cong, a Beijing 101 Middle School graduate, who started his undergraduate program at the University of California, Berkeley in September.

Growing up playing baseball and hockey, the 18-year-old set out to change the stereotype by launching KanKan Sports, a training camp that provides an introduction to US-campus sports in an English-speaking environment to help students set to study abroad make a smooth transition.

"Hopefully, it will help them develop some interest (in the sports we teach) and get them ready for what to expect in the US," Cong said.

The program got off to a flying start in May at its first six-week camp, where 33 high school students practiced English and the fundamentals of baseball, American football and ultimate frisbee with five foreign coaches, whom Cong hired from an expat hockey league in Beijing. They trained for two hours every Sunday on a baseball field at Tsinghua University.

The session started with an instruction on the rules and history of US sports in a group discussion format, followed by warm-ups before exhibition games. An experience-sharing group wrapped up the training day.

At 160 yuan ($26) per week, the first semester ended up with a loss as few students participated in the full six-week sessions due to extra tutorials during summer break.

Cong made up the shortfall on grounds rental and equipment purchases (more than 11,000 yuan), while paying the trainers' salary of 200 yuan per hour with his own savings.

Cong's mother Zhu Dan said: "We didn't, and we won't, provide any help, financially or materially, as he has to learn how to work under pressure.''