The 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, but many human rights activists support a boycott. They liken the circumstances to previous governments that used the games to glorify their regimes--most notoriously the Nazis in 1936. What has led to this perception and is it fair? Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics is a cultural history of sport in China that challenges many such ingrained Western assumptions. The authors unpick the relationship of sport to imperialism and revolution and examine its significance in both China and Taiwan at governmental and everyday levels. In the process they successfully debunk harmful myths, such as the prevalence of drugs in Chinese sport among women athletes, and present a balanced view that is a much-needed corrective to popular understanding.
The 2008 Olympic Games will be held in Beijing but many human rights activists support a boycott. They liken the circumstances to previous governments that used the games to glorify their regimes - most notoriously the Nazis in 1936. What has led to this perception and is it fair? Sport, Revolution and the Beijing Olympics is a cultural history of sport in China and challenges many such ingrained Western assumptions. The authors unpick the relationship of sport to imperialism and revolution, and examine its significance in both China and Taiwan at governmental and everyday levels. In the process, they successfully debunk harmful myths, such as the prevalence of drugs in Chinese sport among women athletes, and present a balanced view that is a much-needed corrective to popular understanding.
This book focuses on the processes of documenting the Beijing Olympics – ranging from the visual (television and film) to radio and the written word – and the meanings generated by such representations. What were the ‘key’ stories and how were they chosen? What was dramatised? Who were the heroes? Which ‘clashes’ were highlighted and how? What sorts of stories did the notion of ‘human interest’ generate? Did politics take a backseat or was the topic highlighted repeatedly? Thus, the focus was not on the success or failure of this event, but on the ways in which the Olympics Games, as international and historic events, are memorialised by observers. The key question that this book addresses is: How far would the Olympic coverage fall into the patterns of representation that have come to dominate Olympic reporting and what would China, as a discursive subject, bring to these patterns? This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
Already the world has seen the political, economic, and cultural significance of hosting the 2008 Olympics in Beijing—in policies instituted and altered, positions softened, projects undertaken. But will the Olympics make a lasting difference? This book approaches questions about the nature and future of China through the lens of sports—particularly as sports finds its utmost international expression in the Olympics.
With contributions from some of the most well respected and experienced Chinese writers, journalists, and organizers, China’s Great Leap examines the People’s Republic of China as its government and 1.3 billion people prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. When Beijing first sought the Games, China was still recovering from the upheavals of Maoist rule and adapting to a market revolution. Today, China wants to engage with the outside world—while fully controlling the engagement. How will the new leaders in Beijing manage the Olympic process and the internal and external pressures for reform it creates? China’s Great Leap will illuminate China’s recent history and outline how domestic and international pressures in the context of the Olympics could achieve human rights change. Learn about key areas for human rights reform and how the Olympics could represent a possible great leap forward for the people of China and for the world.
This book examines the impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympic Games and highlights the latest findings in the areas of sport policy, elite sports system, sport media, sport facility management and sport social development in the two host countries - China and Britain. It identifies the role of national and local governments, universities and educational institutions in the delivery of elite sport in different cultural and social settings. Aspects of the elite sports system are also analysed, such as elite athletes' training and education, athletes' rights and welfare both during and after an athlete’s career. Finally, the book considers the legacy of the Olympic Games in the areas of sport participation, public diplomacy, education and cultural communication in Europe and China. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.
Encouraging readers in other international settings to consider this topic from their own cultural contexts, this collection demonstrates how China has created new forms of influence through sport and considers what this might mean for how we understand the deeper role sport can play on the world stage.
In 2008, as few in the world are unaware, China was host to the world via the Beijing Olympics. The world watched the metamorphosis of Beijing from insecure capital to confident metropolis but, aware of it or not, the world was also watching the symbolic assertion, via the Games, of a rising superpower. The Pacific Rim will be the stage on which China initially displays its new hegemonic intentions, aspirations and ambitions. Thus in Post-Beijing 2008, the political, economic and cultural impact of Beijing 2008 on the geopolitical future of the Pacific Rim will be discussed. This perspective, analysed by some of the most distinguished academic commentators from some of the world's leading universities who are closely associated with the Pacific Rim (East and West), is original in focus and the analysis is pregnant with political possibilities. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.
The East Asian Olympiads, 1934-2008: Building Bodies and Nations in Japan, Korea, and China is the first scholarly volume to focus on the collective East Asian experience of the Olympic Games. These twelve essays, from the diverse disciplinary perspectives of anthropology, geography, history, political science, and sports studies, explore how the Asian Olympics were used as patriotic exercises and yardsticks of social progress, shaped ideals of individual health and national strength, and were manipulated by states, interest groups, commercial concerns, and the media. This innovative collection suggests that the Olympics have played an important role in the creation of a modern East Asian identity in a world—and a global sporting culture—still dominated by the West.
This is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of the history and development of sport from the ancient to the contemporary era in China. It addresses the gap between the vibrant academic scholarship within China and the limited understanding of Chinese sport outside of the country. It opens different perspectives on Chinese sport and addresses a wide range of issues central to the development of sport in the context of Chinese culture, politics, economy, and society. It explores a diverse set of topics including the history of Chinese traditional sport, the rise of modern sport and the Olympic movement, sport and nationhood, sport and politics and international relations, sport and physical education, sport and economy and commerce, sport and social stratification and diversity, and sport leisure and tourism. It offers critical insights into the multifaceted world of China, past and present—a contribution to our collective knowledge and understanding of Chinese sport and society—and is useful reading for students, researchers, and professionals with an interest in the field of China and Chinese sport. This Handbook has been contributed to by a team consisting of 88 leading Chinese and Asian experts and scholars with varied backgrounds of studying and working in European, North American, and Australian universities, as well as Western scholars with expertise on China and its sports system and practice. It is composed of ten parts classified by different subjects. It provides a wide lens through which to better contextualise the relationships between China and the world within the global sport community. The Routledge Handbook of Sport in China is a vital resource for students and scholars studying the history, politics, sociology, culture and policy of sport in China, as well as sport management, sport history, sport sociology, and sport policy and politics. It is also valuable reading for those who are working in international sport policy making and sport organisations.
