FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In an effort to promote American football and its team to new markets, the New England Patriots will be launching a Chinese section on their website, www.patriots.com.
Patriots fan Tian Y. He, an undergraduate student at MIT who is majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, will translate the section in Simplified Mandarin. On a daily basis, He will encapsulate the news he finds on Patriots.com and transcribe it for our Chinese-speaking audiences.
"I was a Patriots fan when I watched my very first NFL game," said He. "I can't begin to describe to you how excited I am about this opportunity. To work for the reigning Super Bowl champions and to spread my love of the game to billions of my fellow countrymen is just a dream come true."
There are also plans for He to translate Patriots.com's popular video show, Patriots Video News, once a week.
"We know that the popularity of American football continues to grow every year," said Patriots Director of Interactive Media Fred Kirsch. "Appearing in three Super Bowls in the last seven years has given the Patriots tremendous global exposure. After each Super Bowl appearance, the volume of international visits to our Website has grown exponentially. With a local resource like Tian available to us, offering our first non-English translation of Patriots.com to a Chinese audience was a no-brainer. We hope this launch will be the first of many others, as we continue to extend our reach to fans around the world."
To view the section containing the translated content, users can go to www.patriots.com and click on the Chinese character (Simplified) link or go directly to www.patriots.com/chinese.
Tian Y. He is a 20-year old MIT student born in Beijing. Before moving to the United States, Tian moved several times in China, from Shanghai to Beijing, and then from the Chungwenmen district in that city to Jiangzhaikou. In March of 1993, Tian, a third grader at Ditan Elementary, relocated along with his mother, to Cookeville, Tenn., where his father had been studying Chemistry at Tennessee Technological University. Tian came to the U.S. knowing very little English. After half a year of total immersion and with the help of his newly acquainted American friends from elementary school and American cartoons, he became a fluent speaker.
In 1994, Tian moved to Knoxville, Tenn. It was there that he grew acquainted with American Football. He became a diehard Volunteers fan, turning on the television every Saturday to watch the college games.
In 1998, Tian's family moved to Atlanta, Ga. For the next four years he went to Chattahoochee High School where he was a varsity cross country and track runner and salutatorian of his graduating class of 2002. He continued supporting all that is Tennessee in Bulldog country. That meant supporting the Vols' 1998 national championship run and watching a fledgling Tennessee Titans program become a perennial Super Bowl contender. His favorite play of all time is still "the Music City Miracle."
But ask Tian what his favorite football game of all time is, and the answer doesn't include a Tennesse team. It is the overtime victory by the Patriots against the Raiders in a 2001 AFC divisional playoff game.
That's because the first NFL game Tian saw was Super Bowl XXXI in which the Patriots took on the Green Bay Packers. Though it was his first time watching the NFL, he still had a team to root for – the Patriots. The game was a forgettable loss to the Packers, but the Patriots had garnered an unforgettable place in Tian's heart.
After college, Tian plans to work in the Information Technology or International Commerce industry. He would like to eventually settle in China, working for a company of his own.
The New England Patriots are members of the National Football League and Super Bowl XXXVIII and XXXVI Champions.
