Caxirola replaces vuvuzela as official World Cup instrument

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-06-15

Two fans in Brazil hold up their caxirolas. (Photo/CNS)

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa it was the vuvuzela with its 120 decibel blast like a swarm of angry bees that provided the soundtrack to the matches. This time, as the 2014 World Cup gets underway in Brazil, it is the turn of the caxirola — but both plastic instruments for the amusement of fans and to cheer on the teams were made in China.

The caxirola is a Brazilian percussion instrument made of sealed plastic containing small rattling beads. Its inventor, the Oscar-nominated Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown gets the inspiration from the more organic caxixi, a woven basket with a flat bottom made from a gourd fontaining seeds or other particles.

Those for whom the vuvuzela was an annoyance at the last tournament can take comfort from the fact that the caxirola produces a sound level equivalent to that of people talking normally — it is estimated that it would take 1,000 caxirolas to generate the same the sound level as a single vuvuzela.

Defended by its supporters at the 2010 tournament for being a "traditional" instrument for use at football matches, the vuvuzela was banned by the European governing body of the sport UEFA in 2012 for its overwhelming noise.

What the caxirola and the vuvuzela have in common however is that they are both produced in the city of Yiwu in eastern China's Zhejiang province, at a factory which made more than 200 million caxirolas within half a year. A caxirola costs at most US$0.80 in China over the internet but costs at least US$2.40 in Brazil, reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.

As an alternative to either, a Belgian designer has come up with the diabolica, a collapsible pocket-sized trumpet that is as noisy as a vuvuzela. Hopefully there will be few takers.