In addition to the overlap between personal experiences and soccer memories, the process of fans experiencing the game with athletes and experiencing success and failure together is also a process of fans reinforcing their self-identity and public identity, an emotional experience and affective relationship that is invaluable (Yildiz, 2022). For example, Liverpool
Even after a 30-year drought of league titles, the fans still believe in the team's slogan "You will Never Walk Alone" as their soul, and they have a deep affection for the team, and will not change their stance just because of a momentary loss.
Back to Chinese fans
The reality of the situation, as the backbone of the Northwest soccer, Shaanxi fans are also the same. "(The friendly loss to Uzbekistan's Tirmizi Surhang FC) The result was something we all expected ...... The score is not important, the important thing is to give the team a chance to work out." (Fan A, management of fan organization - CA). "Winning and losing is a matter of course, one step at a time ...... The team also needs time to gel, so that means we are confident and full of confidence." (Fan D, fan organization management-SX). "When I was young there was no time, and now I'm old and don't go to work, usually stay at home and have nothing to do, look at the ball, when Chang'an Athletic disbanded I also stranded at home and cried, my daughter-in-law hugged me and said, 'Oops what can I cry about', she doesn't understand ah." (Fan E, General Fan - SX). "At that time (after the dissolution of Chang'an Athletic) as long as the news about the Shaanxi team I will always watch, but I did not dare to go to the training base, I went to the certainly more sad, so I secretly cry cry it." (Fan F, General Fan - SX).
1.2 Regional Identity: High level of identification with and belonging to home culture
Soccer clubs bring with them a sense of identity and pride, and they may represent a region, a village, a city or a country, or they may have skin color, class, etc., which are closely tied to regionality (Mason, 1988). Unlike many traditional English clubs that represent merely regional, community-based groups, Chinese fans
The team is often seen as a symbol of a city or even an entire province.
Similarly, Shaanxi fans also revere their local team as a representative of Trojan Qin. Place carries the significance of social identity and fan culture, and the concept of place identity is closely related to Duan Yifu's (1974) concept of "place-loving complex", which means a person's attachment to a certain place. Shaanxi fans have a deep love and a high degree of identification with the land of Sanqin, not only do they label their team as the "Qin Army", but they also imitate the ancient Qin war songs in the stands by shouting "Wind, wind, great wind, great wind" and striking the "drum of victory" evolved from the "drum of victory". The eight drums evolved from the "Drums of Victory", and the drummers even put on the unique Qin Terracotta Warriors' costumes on specific occasions to support the team.
Shaanxi fans call themselves "Qin people", and they have the highest recognition and belonging to their hometown culture, and their love for soccer and Shaanxi is the driving force behind their perseverance. This explains why Shaanxi has never had a Chinese Super League soccer team.
The league level of the team, but does not affect the Shaanxi fans obsession and loyalty to the team. "We don't care about the level, and we've never been fans of the championship, as long as it's a Shaanxi team, we'll go (to cheer)." (Fan B, fan organization management-SX). "It's just love, after all, the Shaanxi people's own baby themselves to support ah." （Shils (1975) argues that each region has a "sacred center" that represents its unique cultural heritage and belief traditions, which do not depend on physical geographic space, but rather are social symbols and values that transcend materiality and are the basis for the formation of social identity and a sense of belonging. These cultures and beliefs do not depend on physical geographic space, but are a kind of social symbols and values that transcend the material, and are an important basis for people to form a social identity and sense of belonging.
The stadium is not only a home platform for fans to watch the game, but also a kind of spiritual support, and every home game is a pilgrimage. For Shaanxi fans, the Shaanxi Provincial People's Stadium "St. Vermilion Bird" is the place of glory in their hearts. It's not easy to get thousands of people to attend regular League B matches, but "St. Vermilion Bird" manages to get more than 10,000 people on average, and the attendance rate is not only high in League B and League A, but also high in League B and League 2, and it's a great place to watch home matches.
The league's top spot, even surpassing some of the Premier League's
League clubs. In addition, not only do Shaanxi teams announce their home matches with the phrase "Return to the Holy Vermilion Bird", but some Shaanxi fan organizations have also incorporated the "Vermilion Bird" element into their logos.
1.3 Group Identity: Resentment and Cherishing of the Broken Generation Change of Local Teams
Based on team identity and regional identity, Shaanxi fans have formed a strong group identity. Group identity is the foundation of fan culture and an important process that leads to a high degree of unity between fans and teams. Just as European soccer clubs are regarded as the anchor point of the spirit of citizenship and collective identity, Shaanxi fans also regard their own team as a symbol and logo, and the Shaanxi players as their own family members, sharing the joys and sorrows of the team and the players, and bearing the glory and disgrace of the rise and fall together.
Therefore, for the self-esteem inherited the spirit of the Northwest Wolves Shaanxi team, the only requirement of the fans is to fight with all their might on the field: "'Winning also love, losing also love, do not fight not love' this is the interpretation of the spirit of the Northwest Wolves, win, accompany you gleefully go jumping and jumping, defeat, the end of the match Shouted on the whole field is also 'Go Shaanxi, go Shaanxi'." This attitude is resonated among many fans "Our team even if 'dead', but also to stand 'dead'!" (Fan C, fan organization management-DQ). Behind the fans' loyal following of the Northwest Wolves team is their reluctance and cherishing of the constant turnover and unexpected break in the local team. "Shaanxi team's break alternation is relatively fast, from the last century's GuoLi to the current Chang'an United, we think the home team has been replaced four times, probably all five, six, seven, eight years once like this, iron fans running water team." (Fan A, fan organization management - CA). "Shaanxi fans persevere by being unconquerable! You don't know how pathetic Shaanxi fans are, Shaanxi fans are like riding a roller coaster, going up for a while and coming down again." (Fan B, fan organization management-SX).
In the face of the unfairness and unluckiness of soccer, Shaanxi fans chose to adhere to and support, with their own voices and actions for Shaanxi soccer shouting and fighting. "I also really want to have a team where I can stay with him and he grows up slowly with me ...... 'I grow old slowly, you grow up slowly'." (Fan B, fan organization management-SX). "Fans are trying to make our team our Shaanxi soccer better and better, not to bring them burden and pressure." (Fan D, fan organization management-SX). "Shaanxi fans watch the game purely, there is no saying that our team is going to reach the Super League and next year we are going to reach the B ...... We only care about this game, we put the oil for the team, we create this atmosphere, must it be No 1, the team to do well for itself, you just can afford to Shaanxi soccer this 4 words is ok. Just work hard and leave the rest to God's will." (Fan B, fan organization management-SX). "In fact, for us as long as the stability on the line, we did not think is to which level more high-level, we think there is a team, we are free on Saturday and Sunday, take the family or take friends a piece of the family, like every day to eat three meals, this feeling on the line" (fan D, fan organization management-SX).
2 Fan organizations are the aggregation of Shaanxi fans' emotions
2.1 Shaanxi aggregation
Since the establishment of the Xi'an Fan Association in 1994, Shaanxi fans have expanded to other parts of Shaanxi Province with Xi'an as the center, and have developed a number of fan associations ranging from 200 to 4,000 people. With the return of Shaanxi to professional soccer and the return of Shaanxi soccer to the public's view, Shaanxi fans in foreign countries have spontaneously established local fan organizations around Shaanxi soccer.
For example, the Northwest Wolves Beijing-Tianjin fan club
Northwest Wolves Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai Fan Club
Northwest Wolves Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau Fan Club
Eastern Europe Shaanxi Fan Club
etc. These organizations not only bring together local Shaanxi people through collective game watching, paring and other communication methods, but also connect with local Shaanxi fans and even other Shaanxi fan organizations in other regions through following the team's expeditions, entertaining foreign fans, and interacting with their own media. In the rising and falling "Shaanxi team, Northwest Wolves", Shaanxi soccer has gradually become a carrier for Shaanxi people from all over the country and the world to unite. Soccer makes all Shaanxi people feel their hometown from another perspective; soccer unites the strength and wisdom of Shaanxi people and strengthens their centripetal force towards their hometown.
In addition to spatial aggregation, the establishment and growth of Shaanxi fan organizations have also gradually brought together Shaanxi people of different ages and backgrounds: from children to the elderly, from students to entrepreneurs, from the lively "atmosphere group" to the professional fans focusing on the performance of the game, as long as they love Shaanxi soccer, they will be able to find their own belonging.
It can be seen that Shaanxi fans are gradually becoming "tribalized", using Shaanxi soccer as a medium to build a fan paradigm with a relatively new value orientation in China - socialized fans. Thousands of Shaanxi people from all corners of the country interact with each other through this fan paradigm, thus obtaining a value identity and sense of intimacy, immersing themselves in the narrative of Shaanxi soccer's return to glory and thus aggregating, and gradually subdividing into small communities such as close-knit fighting groups chained by geography, interests and emotions, evolving from the initial socialization of individual fans into the socialization of a collective fan community.
2.2 Convergence of Qin culture
Qin from the edge of the Western Zhou period, through dozens of generations of people to strive for strength, the establishment of the great unification of the Qin empire, which and with the times, the sea and the unique qualities of the Qin culture is inseparable. From Shaanxi fan organizations, especially some of the larger fan clubs
The Qin culture can be seen at the level of the artifacts. At the level of artifacts, from the eight drums that have been in the stands of the St. Vermilion Bird for more than 20 years, to the famous "dong dong ki" drum beat, to the Great Wind Song, which was created by the ancient Qin army during the wars, all of these stadium elements demonstrate the inheritance and development of the Qin culture by the fans in Shaanxi. At the spiritual level, the first thing is to be good at learning. Ever since the Qin community ascended to the stage of history, it has been good at acquiring knowledge from observation and exploration, and drawing strength for development from learning. 2019, the Chang'an Power Chapter is studying the Russian Federation.
Zenit Football Club's experience of fan activities, with about 200 cold fireworks waving on both sides of the team bus, intended to "light up the team's way". At the same time, the cheering style of Shanghai fans learned from abroad more than 20 years ago, the hometown cheering of Guangdong fans, and the stands culture of Chengdu Blades Fan Association were also adopted by Shaanxi fan associations in the course of mutual learning and exchanges.
Secondly, it dares to innovate. The "ancient innovation" opens the era of strong Qin, Shaanxi fan organizations also through non-stop "ancient innovation", not confined to the traditional cheering stands, the development of a rich variety of fan activities, and fan culture to spread to the social level.
For example, "The People's Team for the People" originated from the Red Chang'an Fan Club, which is good at making slogans and is dedicated to charity.
The Shaanxi War God Fan Association, which specializes in expeditions, and the "Noise LTS Fan Group", which innovates the atmosphere of the stands, are also good at cheering. In addition, the Shaanxi Fan Association is good at cheering with eight drums that have a majestic tone, while the Daqin Army and Chang'an Athletic Fan Association prefer military drums that have a more intense and bright drum beat, and so on. The innovation of fan organizations in Shaanxi has shown "fan culture as a special cultural phenomenon in contemporary society" to the fullest extent.
Thirdly, the importance of specialization. Shang Junshu "the country good power to difficult to attack, to difficult to attack will rise". Shaanxi fan organizations, especially some of the larger fan associations, gradually evolved from the spontaneous fragmentation of the existence of technical division of labor fan organizations, for example, from the "wolf soul" fan club.
The evolved Da Qin Legion Fan Association has a series of division of labor arrangements such as outreach, publicity, housekeeping, flag and drum team, discipline, and various types of combat groups. Fans can join them according to their own hobbies, personality, professional ability, become part of each department, each combat group, play their own strengths to serve the association.
Finally, the rule of law. Since the founding of the Qin Dynasty, the Qin State has basically followed the tradition of "ruling by law", for example, the Da Qin Army Fan Association has established rules and regulations to regulate the behavior of fans and promote the healthy and rational development of fan organizations. In addition, the Daqin Army Fan Association is the Qin culture related elements of the use of the best show, from the fan clubs
The deep imprint of the name and logo, to the stadium cheering TIFO of "Make the whole world fear Qin", to the production of printed Terracotta Warriors cultural shirts, showing the high degree of identification and belonging to the Qin culture of this fan organization.
2.3 Aggregation of soccer sentiment
Shaanxi fans watch, understand and love football, but looking back from Shaanxi GuoLi continue to this day, compared to fans elsewhere, Shaanxi fans give more emotional interpretation of soccer as a sports program, the aforementioned interviews can be seen, many old and new Shaanxi people in Shaanxi soccer brag about the memories of their own lives and memories of their youth placed in it, in a foreign land of Shaanxi, whether they know the game or do not know the game, they are all looking forward to cohesion under the call of the "Shaanxi team, the Northwest Wolves". Shaanxi people in foreign countries, whether they know the game or not, are looking forward to cohesion under the call of "Shaanxi team, Northwest Wolves". Therefore, the ever-growing Shaanxi fan organization not only aggregates the sentiment of Shaanxi people and their memories of the glory of Qin culture, but also aggregates the love and expectation of Shaanxi people for soccer as an emotional carrier.
From the blossoming of cheering in the stands, to the gathering and cooperation at the opening of the fan train for the two away teams' expeditions in 2018 and 2023, to the joint statement issued twice to save the hometown team in 2020 and 2023 to collect funds to carry the banner of professional soccer in Shaanxi, the united Shaanxi fan organization exploded with a strong sense of appeal.
Therefore, we say that fan organizations aggregate the soccer sentiment of Shaanxi people, and researchers have developed the following theoretical understanding of this: with socio-economic changes, the original community of life through emotional dependence, connection, and trust gradually dissolved, and more and more people appealed to rebuild the community that is bound by emotional identity. Although independent individual expression is increasingly respected, the emotional community based on valuing emotions and human feelings is still a deep and lasting cultural gene (Li Bin, 2023).
As a result, soccer has a strong emotional dependence ability, awakening hometown empathy "common presence" and cultivate a common concept "common responsibility" of Shaanxi fan organizations, aggregated a variety of perspectives on Shaanxi people who love Shaanxi soccer, constructed a beyond the interests of the community of "football" emotional community. It has built a "soccer" emotional community that goes beyond the community of interests.
3 Shaanxi United Football Club and Shaanxi fans' emotional integration
As the only professional league soccer club in Shaanxi area, Shaanxi United Football Club, which is exploring the membership system, is worthy of serious thinking and planning on how to recognize the source and aggregation of Shaanxi fans' emotion and integrate with them to become the sublimation of Shaanxi fans' emotion, and truly share and govern with the fans.
3.1 Respect the fans, resonate with them, and create an empathetic "Qin Xin".
"Football without the fans is nothing", which means that the fans that a professional soccer club serves are not just "consumers" of the sport, but "supporters" who have an emotional interaction with the club. This means that the fans served by a professional football club are not mere "consumers" of sports events, but "supporters" who have an emotional interaction with the club. In other words, the "fan base" is one of the core of the club's development, and the club should maintain close communication and interaction with fans, understand fans' needs and expectations, respect fans' opinions and suggestions, respond to fans' concerns in a timely manner, and build up a relationship of trust and cooperation. In this regard, Shaanxi United Football Club can improve the sense of belonging and participation of fans by providing various ways of interaction, strengthening the construction of fans' peripheral industries, and guiding fans to participate in governance.
(1) Modes of interaction. Clubs utilize both physical spaces and digital environments to create conditions that provide more opportunities for fans to engage with their teams. According to a Deloitte 2023 study for Serie A
The report of the league's fans shows that 97% of young fans (under 14 years old) and 68% of old fans (over 65 years old) expressed great interest in visiting the team's base, 59% of hardcore fans and 63% of young fans are eager to have direct contact with the players. Therefore, in the interaction of offline physical space, it is possible to regularly open the training center for fans to visit, set up face-to-face exchanges with players and coaches, and organize community charity activities for clubs + fans. This can enhance fans' social responsibility and civic awareness while increasing their identification and emotional connection to the club and team.
Interaction in the online digital environment, on the other hand, should provide flexible heterogeneous and customized content according to the specific needs of different fans, build a platform for real-time online communication and interaction between fans and players, and improve the club's all-round and effective communication mechanism with fans from the grassroots to the top. This not only meets the personalized and customized needs of fans, but also enhances fan participation and entertainment.
(2) Fan peripheral industry. The club should continue the existing practice and innovate to build a high-quality soccer museum and fan store exclusively for Shaanxi fans, so as to respect, treasure and inherit the memory of Shaanxi soccer. On the one hand, as the core of cultural identity, sports museums have always been regarded as spiritual "pilgrimage" places, where fans' individual and collective memories are intertwined with the team's history (Liu Qiang, 2020). Therefore, it is important to listen to and collect the stories of fans and teams to promote the construction of the Shaanxi Football Museum. On the other hand, it is necessary to cooperate with cultural and creative enterprises to launch more diversified fan products with unique characteristics of the Northwest region, so as to build a common memory between clubs and fans.
(3) Fans' participation in governance. The club faces up to the important position of fans in the club, guides the fans' sense of ownership in soccer governance, improves and optimizes the new membership model, gives the fans the right to speak and make decisions in major events, and regularly convenes plebiscites and general meetings to collect the demands of fans and fans' organizations, so as to effectively achieve that the Shaanxi United Football Club is born for the fans, and empathizes with the fans.
(4) Co-development with local small and micro-enterprises. As a market entity with certain commercial operation experience, Shaanxi United Football Club can build a market platform for small and medium-sized enterprises in Shaanxi, and assist in creating more jobs while boosting the confidence of the local private economy and promoting the coordinated development of the region. Thus, the "Thousand Shops Program" proposed by the Club is not a simple labeling, nor is it a "contract of sale" signed by small and micro-enterprises at the cost of losing their subjectivity, but rather a win-win strategy for the Club's in-depth integration with the social economy.
Chinese football
Article 12 of the overall program for football reform and development proposes to build a century of soccer clubs, in order to achieve this development goal, the club needs to unite all the forces that can be united to build the Shaanxi soccer brand. The "Thousand Shops Program" not only opens the way for cooperation between the club and local small and medium-sized enterprises, but also serves as a bridge for dialogue between the club and young people. Through product co-branding and other specific forms, bilateral resources can be integrated, and while small and medium-sized enterprises expand their customer sources, the spirit of "Northwestern Wolves" is also spread to the daily lives of more people in Shaanxi. The spirit of "Northwest Wolves" has also spread to the daily lives of more Shaanxi people.
3.2 Publicize the highlights, spread the good voice of Shaanxi, and play the resonant "Qin sound".
Soccer is not only an expression of sportsmanship, but also a form of culture and values; soccer is not only a common language in the world, but also a memory of the countryside. Therefore, the voice of soccer in Shaanxi is not only the link between the "Qin people" around the world, but also an effective way to build a local cultural brand and enhance the influence of Chinese culture.
Report shows Qatar World Cup
Drawing the attention of 5 billion people around the world, why is this event so influential? It wasn't enough to rely on the 3.4 million on-site spectators, but more to the power of social media to spread the word. According to data provided by Nielsen, there were 93.6 million combined posts on all major social media outlets, with a cumulative reach of 262 billion and 5.95 billion interactions.
In China, the influence of new media is also not to be underestimated: QuestMobile data show that as of September 2023, China's head of the new media platform de-emphasized active user scale has reached 1.088 billion, the penetration rate reached 88.9%. In this regard, the club can rely on Internet technology, through the media publicity platform to show their own highlights. Its realization path lies in the following: conceptually, Qin culture is the background color taking into account the universal value of soccer. On the one hand, the club insists on the local character of Shaanxi soccer, and enhances the sense of belonging and identity of the fans in Shaanxi and even in the northwest region; on the other hand, the club recognizes the global connectivity of soccer, which is "a small ball turning into a big ball", and attracts the potential fans with diversified cultural backgrounds.
For example, the club can take the way of cooperation with overseas new media, inviting all individuals and groups interested in Shaanxi soccer and Shaanxi United Football Club to come to Shaanxi to feel the soccer atmosphere, experience the local characteristics of the culture and share their true feelings through blog posts, videos and other forms.
Strategically, it strengthens the overseas layout of Shaanxi soccer digital content by virtue of diversified marketing means. Through multi-platform and omni-channel multi-touch through radio, TV and fusion media, it delivers the positive values of Chinese soccer culture to overseas soccer audiences, increases the brand awareness and reputation of Shaanxi soccer, and spreads the good voice of Shaanxi.
In terms of content, based on the team, we provide media content that fans enjoy. Specialized teams are commissioned to conduct surveys to understand the needs of fans and publish heterogeneous content according to the needs of different groups. For example, we provide match highlights, player techniques and team tactics for fans who are concerned about the stadium events, and player interviews and behind-the-scenes stories for fans who are concerned about the off-field events.
In addition, it can also link up with soccer clubs, media and fan organizations in other regions and countries through social media platforms, which not only expands the influence of Shaanxi soccer, but also helps to further establish harmonious fan relations, avoid conflicts and confrontations among fans, and lead to a healthy fan culture.
In terms of form, with the help of the head platform to plough into the vertical field of soccer, to further enrich the content of the push, and at the same time, constantly optimize the mode of dissemination, and enhance the interactivity. For example, make full use of the influence of live broadcasting and short video network platforms, establish different style accounts according to the needs of fans, and absorb talents to establish a special "selection" group, attracting more potential people to pay attention to Shaanxi soccer while contributing to the comprehensive and high-quality development of the northwest region.
4 Conclusion
The reason why Shaanxi fans are so fanatical about soccer is that they have expressed their love and inheritance for their team and hometown culture through soccer on the one hand, and constructed their own group identity through their resistance to the plight of their own team and their belonging to the fan group on the other. The fervor and loyalty of Shaanxi fans is not only the love of soccer, but also the love of regional society and culture and the sizzling love for their hometown.
Based on this, Shaanxi United Football Club to realize the sharing of common governance with the fans, it is necessary to be symbiotic, sympathetic and resonant with the fans, take the initiative to integrate and strive to become the sublimation of Shaanxi fans' emotions, and Shaanxi fans hand in hand with the struggle to reshape the glory of Shaanxi soccer road.
