There are several iconic Hong Kong “experiences” I haven’t had and attending the Rugby Sevens is one of them. Although my secondary school in Singapore had a venerable rugby-playing tradition, I still don’t understand the rules, and I suspect many of the people who gathered in the South Stand at Hong Kong Stadium last month didn’t either. But that didn’t stop them from having a ball.

The first ball games in China were played about 2,300 years ago, according to historical records, in the state of Qi (which covered most of present-day Shandong province). During the Warring States Period (475-221BC), Qi was a “rich and strong” place, where “people played [musical instruments such as] the yu, se and zhu, engaged in cockfighting and dog racing, played [the board game of] liubo, and took part in a sport that involved the kicking of a ball”.

Due to its promotion by the emperors of the Western Han dynasty (206BC-AD9) as part of military training, the ball game became a spectator sport. Two teams, each with 12 players, would face off inside a walled enclosure surrounded by spectator stands. The winning team was the one that kicked the ball into the goal the most number of times, rather like modern-day soccer.