Wang Shi Came to Oriental Cambridge Promoting Rowing and Rowing Spirit

Wang Shi Came to Oriental Cambridge Promoting Rowing and Rowing Spirit
Wang Shi Asian Universities Tour “Rocked” Chinese University’s Business School.
On March 14th, 2015, Wang Shi, board chairman of China Vanke, came to Hangzhou China for his Asian Universities Rowing Tour- Hangzhou Station cooperating with School of Management EMBA Education Center of Zhejiang University, and gave a speech entitled Rowing And The Entrepreneurship. It’s the first time that Wang Shi has given the public speech in Chinese University after being elected as the President of Asian Rowing Federation, attracting thousands of EMBA students of Zhejiang University and people from industrial and commercial industry.
Rowing Is The Body Language of World Universities.
Rowing has a history of more than 200 years, originating from River Thames, the United Kingdom. It is an environmental, healthy,team spiritual and international sport. The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race which has continued more than a century is most well-known. The rowing race between Harvardand Yale is held every year. In China, Tsinghua University and Peking University have also held rowing contests before.
Wang Shi, President of Asian Rowing Federation, thinks it is the time to promote rowing sport in China. China’s urbanization has reached a certain level that a lot of people already have the demand for rowing. Despite rowing cannot achieve its popularity as Ping Pong and soccer do, a relatively less popular sport can also develop more than a million enthusiasts in China. He thinks universities are the best soil to develop rowing sport. For example, Oxford and Cambridge boat race has lasted for more than a hundred years. China has the best rowing competition ability in Asia, which has laid a solid foundation for promoting rowing sport.
Wang Shi went to Asian Universities Tour to promote rowing as President of Asian Rowing Federation
In 2013, with the recommendation from Water Sports Administration Center of State General Administration of Sport, Wang Shi, board chairman of China Vanke was elected as the Vice President of Chinese Rowing Association. On Sep 25th, 2014, after 33 federations’ votes, Wang Shi with the highest votes was elected as the President of Asian Rowing Federation, serving from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first non-athlete elected president of continental sports federation in China.
Wang Shi himself is a fan of rowing. He began to learn about rowing in 2005, and supported Shanghai Vanke to establish 7 enterprise rowing crews. After he went to study in Harvard in 2010, rowing is the only sport he has continued doing. At present, while Wang Shi is continuing his research as the visiting scholar in Cambridge University, he not only joined the university crew’s rowing training, but also launched Chines entrepreneurs’deep-dive camp.
As an entrepreneur, not an athlete, how he plans to promote rowing has attracted a lot of attention from the public. This speech in Zhejiang University’s business school is the first event that has been held after the election, which was widely noticed.
Wang Shi University Tour, Rock and Row, 14 Cities
According to Shen Yihan, member of Marketing and Promotion Committee ofthe tour’s sponsor organization,Asian Rowing Federation, the Asian Universities Tour is defined as Rock and Row-Rowing and The Entrepreneurship. Rock as stone, refers to Wang Shi’s name. Row refers to rowing. Rock and Row has the similar pronunciation to rock and roll, which means Wang Shi will be like the rock star, attends the lecture tour in 14 cities where gathers a lot of universities and has the potential for sports, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Beijing， Shanghai, Shenzhen, and also Xian and Wuhan where rowing is popular.
When asked why Wang Shi chose Zhejiang University as the first stop in the universities tour, Shen Yihan answered as follows. First of all, it has a historical significance to start from here. Because Rowing originates from the United Kingdom. President Wang Shi is now studying in Cambridge University and will go to Oxford next. Zhejiang University is known as Oriental Cambridge, which makes a historical meaning to be the first stop of universities tour of rowing promotion. Secondly, Zhejiang Province has a very good condition for water sports. Fuyang has the largest base for producing rowing boats in the world. The rivers and lakes here provide a positive geographical condition for promoting rowing.  In the end, Hangzhou VankeCrew is one of the earliest rowing crews that has been established under the influence of Wang Shi, and has been keeping contributing to rowing promotion till now. Hangzhou is also the first city to have formed nongovernmental rowing clubs.