Game day at Russell Leu's is nothing out of the ordinary — a few friends, a Domino's pizza or two, some local-style talk story and, of course, the University of Hawai'i football team blowing up the wide screen.

It's nothing special unless you consider that Leu and Co. are watching from Beijing, not Beretania, that the weather outside this time of year is more brrr than balmy, and that Warrior fever in China is more of a rare and exotic disease than state-wide affliction.

Imua Warriors?

Try jia you, UH!

"It's Chinese for 'give 'em oil,'" Leu explains. "Kind of like 'step on the gas.' "

Leu and fellow Hawai'i expat Cornell Miyasato represent the heart and the heat of Warrior fandom in Beijing. The UH alums take turns hosting Warrior viewing parties, inviting an amorphous roster of Hawai'i transplants and local sports fans to partake of the digitized wonder of UH football via HTSports-net's online pay-per-view service.

"We run it through a laptop to a big-screen TV," Miyasato says. "We just watch the game and talk stories about what we miss about Hawai'i."

Both Leu and Miyasato earned business degrees from UH in the 1980s (Miyasato also earned an MBA in 2003) and have remained loyal to the football program through seasons good and bad. But it wasn't until both were preparing to move to China a few years ago that a mutual friend introduced them.

Leu, 45, has worked with a law firm in Beijing for four years, with his wife shuttling back and forth between China and Hawai'i. Miyasato, 49, a consultant for a start-up company, moved to Beijing with his family almost four years ago.

Their Warrior gatherings were decidedly modest affairs at first, with Leu, Miyasato and others keeping tabs on UH games via ESPN 1420 radio webcasts. But, for much as former Hawai'i residents enjoy the games themselves, the gatherings have always served other purposes as well.

For the two friends, the chance to spend time with others who have made the mammoth transition from the friendly isles to the bustling, 15 million-strong Beijing is invaluable.

"Beijing is an interesting place," Leu says. "It's an adventure out here because every day is not the same. Yet, you have to keep your identity. We help each other out with how to do things and where to go. Our objective is to be able to function in Chinese society."

To Leu, this process echoes the experiences of their immigrant forebears.

"It's like old times," Leu says. "It's like how our grandparents stuck together in groups because they were outsiders to a new world and a new society."

CHINESE HOSTED

Miyasato agrees. The camaraderie that comes of these weekly gatherings is worth the 1 1/2-hour subway-subway-bus journeys that each visit requires.

"Being here, you really understand how it is to be an outsider," he says. "Our grandparents clung to other foreigners because they came from the same place and spoke the same language. It means a lot just to have one guy there to watch your back."

Leu and Miyasato's love of UH football has provided a bridge for cross-cultural exchange. They've hosted Chinese editors, reporters and businesspeople, providing just enough basic instruction in American football for their Chinese friends and acquaintances to appreciate what the Warriors have accomplished in their unprecedented 2007 run.

In this way, the two friends are doing their small part to sow the seeds of football fanaticism in the seemingly cold, hard ground of Asia.

And as the world turns its eyes to Beijing for the upcoming Olympic Games, Leu and Miyasato are angling to make sure their growing circles of friends and neighbors keep American football in their line of sight.

With enough exposure, Leu said, American football could one day establish a Chinese foothold as solid as basketball currently enjoys.

"Basketball is really big in China now, probably more than soccer," Miyasato said. "Football is slower to catch on, but it's growing. We try to explain the rules and the sportsmanship behind it."

HAWAI'I CALLS

While Leu and Miyasato have no immediate plans to return to Hawai'i, they know what they miss about home.

For Miyasato, it's the ocean and midnight picnics at Hanauma Bay. For Leu, it's the simple pleasure of taking a nap with the windows open.

And one more thing: "Zippy's chili," Miyasato says. "Tell them to send Zippy's chili!"

Leu and Miyasato hope to make contact with other former Hawai'i residents living in Beijing and have set up an e-mail account — hawaiinei@hawaii.com — to share information and coordinate activities, particularly those of the Warrior variety.

"We just want everybody to know there's a Warrior Nation out here," Leu said.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.