The dinosaur-themed halftime show of the fifth-round match between Changzhou and Nanjing at the Su Super League. (Photo/Xinhua）
Can you imagine a football halftime show packed with dinosaurs? That’s exactly what happened on June 21, 2025, during a match between Changzhou and Nanjing in the Jiangsu Football City League (JSCL), an amateur football league in east China’s Jiangsu Province.
As the crowd roared with excitement, 20 life-sized simulated dinosaurs stormed the field—not to chase prey, but to dance, cheer, and even kick around a football. With roars, stomps, and tail sways, they turned the stadium into a prehistoric playground, delivering a wildly entertaining performance that blurred the line between science fiction and sport.
But it’s not just the halftime show that’s turning heads. The JSCL, also known as Su Super League or Su Chao in Chinese, has recently gone viral. This grassroots football match features 13 teams named after their respective cities in Jiangsu Province and includes a diverse profile of players, including teachers, college students, couriers, and programmers.
Posts about the Su Chao matches have gone viral, racking up millions of views on Weibo, and over 4.2 billion views on China’s major short-video platform Douyin. The league’s soaring popularity has made tickets almost impossible to get, with 20 people competing for one seat on average. One of the matches even drew a crowd of 36,712 spectators, rivalling the scale of professional football tournaments.
One key factor behind its popularity is broad public participation. Wang Xiaowan, vice president of the Jiangsu Football Association, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying that "our original intention in organizing the league was to let more people experience the joy of football." That intention is clearly reflected in the league’s ethos of "grassroots football," "joyful football," and "football for the people."
Tourists watch "Su Super League" match in an ancient town scenic area in Wuxi, June 15, 2025. (Handout via Xinhua)
In the league, amateur players take center stage, accounting for 65 percent of all footballers. Anyone who performs best earns a chance to play on the pitch. Their passion strips football of its commercial gloss and restores its joy and purity, making the matches even more exciting.
When city pride is defended by players who are everyday people just like the spectators, the audience feels a stronger connection to the matches, making it easier for people to care, discuss, and support the teams. Su Chao narrows the gap between the sport and the public, turning football from a distant spectacle into a shared experience and bringing the game back to the people.
The internet memes have contributed greatly to the spread of Su Chao nationwide. At every game, competing teams and netizens craft many jokes based on the match and local culture. One of the most viral memes centers on Changzhou’s losing streak. After each defeat, fans jokingly erase a stroke from the Chinese characters for "Changzhou" (常州). As the losses piled up, the name humorously devolved from "Changzhou," then to "Diaozhou" (吊州), and eventually to a single vertical line, the last stroke of the Chinese character Chang. In response, an online campaign aiming to "protect the strokes" emerged. Fans rallied to cheer on the team and symbolically defend the integrity of the city’s name.
Rather than shying away from the jokes, the Changzhou city government embraced the meme culture. Officials published a tongue-in-cheek article discussing its memes and even launched a public naming contest for the team mascot—ultimately accepting the fan-created nickname "Dinosaur No. 13 Girl" as it ranks 13th out of 13 teams. From official media to independent creators, everyone joined in the fun of making, sharing, and responding to memes. Together, they turned Su Chao into more than just a football league—it became a viral cultural phenomenon.
Fans cheer for Changzhou during the fifth-round match against Nanjing at the Su Super League. (Photo/Xinhua)
The notion of fighting for one’s hometown also plays a significant role in promoting Su Chao as it ignites a deep sense of pride and belonging among players and fans. In China, the well-known sportsmanship saying goes, "Friendship First, Competition Second"—but in the Su Super League, it has been humorously reimagined as "Competition First, Friendship 14th." Every match feels like a derby, with no team willing to back down. The passion on the pitch has made local supporters more emotionally invested than ever.
But while competition on the field is intense, the atmosphere off the field is warm and welcoming. Host cities go out of their way to treat visiting fans like honored guests. During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday from May 31 to June 2, Changzhou offered free scenic spot tickets to fans from Yangzhou. This striking contrast—fiery rivalries on the field and generous hospitality off it—not only strengthens local identity, but also breaks down social barriers, fostering a broader sense of community. Su Chao has become a celebration of regional pride, human connection, and shared joy.
As Huang Haiyan, dean of the School of Management, Beijing Sports University, commented, the phenomenal popularity of the Su Super League is the result of "a resonance between local cultural identity, grassroots vitality, and internet communication." As more participants tightly associate themselves with the symbols of their cities—be it team names, mascots, or inside jokes—a strong sense of belonging and a desire to share naturally emerge.
Su Chao has become more than just a football league. It has also become a growing driver of local economic activity. During the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, also the beginning of the competition’s third round, the province welcomed nearly 12.42 million tourists, generating 4.69 billion yuan (about $65 million) in tourism-related spending. On June 2, following the wins of Nanjing and Nantong, orders for Nanjing salted duck set meals on Meituan rose by 58 percent while searches for Nantong-style breakfast soared by 367 percent. The third round alone attracted over 180,000 spectators. UnionPay data shows a 14.63 percent increase in cultural and tourism related consumption from out-of-town visitors in the six host cities. On June 14, as the fourth round of Su Chao kicked off, five host cities saw year-on-year hotel booking increases of 250 percent, 54 percent, 47 percent, 42 percent, and 15 percent, respectively.
With its unique blend of community pride, viral storytelling, and economic vitality, Su Chao is setting a new benchmark for the future of sports in China.
Players of Yangzhou team greet supporters after winning the 3rd round match between Changzhou team and Yangzhou team at the 2025 Jiangsu Football City League (JSCL) in Changzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province, May 31, 2025. (Xinhua)
Intern Geng Yujie contributed to this story.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0702/c90000-20335290.html