As the AFL celebrates Multicultural Round, Collingwood supporter and Chinese migrant Jamie Pi shares his footballing story and reveals the work he is doing to uphold the Magpie name in the Chinese community.

It was a Saturday afternoon, 30 April 1994, and barely twelve months had passed since I first set foot on our sunburnt land. I was venturing out to Waverley Park, the home of football in the south eastern part of Melbourne, to watch the undefeated Melbourne take on Collingwood.

Football had entered my life a few months before, at the confined grassy schoolyard of Dandenong High School, where someone’s yellow footy was the centre of activities during each and every break. I cannot exactly remember why (or who by) I was introduced to the big group of fellow year seven boys and drawn in to jump in packs trying to catch this oddly shaped ball.

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It was 20 January, 1993. Following my father, a top level chef from Urumuqi, in the far north-western capital city of Xinjiang in China, and my mother, an accounts officer, who left their lives behind and took on a new life in Australia. I was 12 and half years old.

Language was an issue, but luckily it didn’t require much English to have a kick at lunchtime, and when I joined St Gerards Junior Football Club for the season of ‘94, I realised that I can learn a lot more than just football at the club.

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Back to Waverley Park, this was my first ever game of footy, I was there with my new friend Joseph and his Pilipino family. Joseph’s brother Noel is a loyal Melbourne supporter. I remember Gavin Brown kicking a goal at the siren right at the end of the first quarter. It was ruled to have been kicked after the siren by the umpires and was not counted. Collingwood lost by five points that day to the undefeated Dees. Perhaps through a strong sense of unjustice, my love for the Pies has taken a strong hold in my heart. It quickly became an obsession.

1994, my first season of footy, saw a premiership with the under-14s. The joy of winning soon turned into aching despair as I watched the Pies’ season slip and end just as the Sherrin fell out of Micky McGuane’s grasp against West Coast. A teary Tony Shaw was walking off the ground surrounded by his teammates, and I had tears rolling down my face, alone at home, and the obsession to footy and Collingwood deepened.

The following year my father opened a restaurant in Fitzroy, which became very handy as I was able to spend a lot of time around the area. I often ventured to Victoria Park just to be at the home of the Pies. The proximity to MCG meant I was able to go to many games, and at the time it was an affordable and great pastime.

Nothing was more exciting than the first ANZAC Day game against Essendon. I can clearly remember going to the ‘G with a school friend, and we were lined up at Gate One with a sea of people. When the gates eventually opened we became separated and I didn’t see him again all day. I walked around to the Great Southern Stand and found a spot on a flight of stairs to sit and watch the game. It remains to be the best game I’ve ever attended, right up there is our premiership in 2010.



Jamie Pi and his family in Black and White from top to toe.

Like most of you, the Pies are almost like a religion. The weekend mood depended on the game’s result, and the latest fashion is no more than the team’s latest polo shirt. Everything had to do with the Pies. My life since that day in 1994 has Black and White all over it, much to the despair of my Aussie family. The Hylands are my family, the three boys to Kathleen and Tommy grew up with me kicking the footy every chance we had. ‘Til this day they are lamenting the fact I was never converted into a Hawks supporter or a Saints support like them.

My first son Xavier was born in January 2008, and the day he was born he became a Collingwood member. I made sure his little brother Brooklyn had the same opportunity to be a Collingwood member from birth. My wife, a Chinese migrant also, was naturally converted to a Pies supporter too.

In 2006, my association with the AFL began. I was invited by the Melbourne Football Club to host their international student event twice that season. A local Chinese radio station, 3CW, also commenced a weekly segment with me talking about AFL footy. In 2010, I was lucky enough to be invited to meet the Chinese President (then Vice-President) Xi at Etihad Stadium and explained our game to him during an AFL match. In the same year I commentated my first game and then again over in Shanghai as the Dees and Lions took the game to China.

Since then, my involvement with promoting our game to the Chinese community has broadened. I was a weekly content contributor to SBS Chinese website, predominately reporting on footy news. When the AFL’s multicultural department called for volunteers to become community ambassadors, I put my hand up and held the role since its inception.

The Chinese community is one of the fastest growing communities in Australia. We have come here for the opportunity to get better education, to live in a quality lifestyle and to contribute to our country. It is important to understand and immerse in the Australian way of living, as I have from a very young age, and the best way is through sport.

At the end of last season, our beloved club, Collingwood, began engaging the Chinese community here and abroad through their unique social media platforms, Weibo and WeChat. The club is represented with verified accounts on these platforms. The club is very much in the infancy of this engagement, but it is an introduction of our great club to a whole new audience. What we are hoping to achieve is for the Chinese speaking community around the world to know more about the Collingwood Football Club and to engage with it. We are a strong and proud club, and we welcome everyone to join us – the Black and White army.

This year’s multicultural round is a time for us to celebrate the many cultures that make up our great game and our great club. From present day heroes such as Alex Fasolo and Mason Cox, to yesterday’s cult figures of Marty Clarke, Alan Didak and Peter Daicos, we will continue to unit as many cultures one game, through the Black and White. Go Pies!