Major Chinese vocational school offers e-sports course

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Lanxiang, one of China's largest and best-known vocational schools,offers courses in electronic sports – better known as eSports – riding the boom of video gaming in Asia.

The school, famed for its education in traditional professions including cooking, auto repairs and hairdressing, recently opened an "eSports college," providing three-month and three-year training courses respectively.

Based in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, the school spent more than 10 million yuan (1.5 million US dollars) on creating the new subject, said principal Rong Lanxiang.

E-sports classroom at Lanxiang. /Photo via Lanxiang

The three-year program aims to help students with zero knowledge about the eSports industry become professionals. Graduates could become gamers, judges or eSports marketing specialists.

"We opened the major because there is a demand. Many people think eSports is simply playing games. But it's not, it's a sport, and a new profession as well," Lan said.

According to a report issued by Chinese Internet giant Tencent, 170 million users took part in the country's eSports industry last year and that number could reach 220 million in 2017.

Lanxiang offers e-sports courses to ride the boom of video gaming in Asia.

In April, the Olympic Council of Asia announced that eSports will be an official competitive event at the Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 51 percent of the world's frequent eSports viewers and enthusiasts are from the Asia Pacific region.

The global eSports industry is expected to increase from roughly 327 million US dollars in revenue in 2016 to 874 million US dollars by 2021, the PwC said.

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Source(s): Xinhua News Agency