This book examines the formation of a globally oriented sports system in China, from the beginning of the reform process in 1978 to the present, focusing on the period after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It analyses how this system has shaped domestic social class identities and its role in international Chinese state politics. Despite advances in the marketization of the sports industry through previous eras, the Chinese state expanded investment in a set of global sports following the heavily government-directed drive towards national success at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. This would be a time when the government focused on policies set to service a growing domestic middle-class and an increasingly wide-ranging set of international interests, with sporting investments being at the heart of their strategic plan. However, reform has proven difficult. The book presents a well-rounded account of this effort with tennis and soccer providing important case studies of the internal and external dynamics of this time. As such, the book will be of interest to researchers and students of globalization of sport, those studying East Asian sports development, and those who are interested in understanding China more broadly.
Author(s): Oliver Rick, Longxi Li
Series: Global Culture and Sport Series
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 228
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
About the Authors
Abbreviations
1: Introduction: Global Sport in Contemporary China
Sport and the Chinese Communist Party
Sporting Periodization and the Development of the PRC Since Reform
The Reform Period (1979–2000)
The Olympic Decade (2000–2008)
The Inter-Olympic Period (2008–2022)
Internal vs. External Dynamics of Chinese Sport
Chapter Outlines
Chapter 2: Chinese Sport Policy from Reform to the Millennium
Chapter 3: An Olympic China: Sport and the Preparation for Beijing 2008
Chapter 4: Global Sports and Shifting Focus: Sport Policy, Investment, and Culture Since Beijing 2008
Chapter 5: Sport and Accessing a Global Community
Chapter 6: When the Global Game Comes to the People’s Republic
Chapter 7: New Forms of Domestic Distinction: Sport and Contemporary Chinese Class Structure
Chapter 8: Tennis Culture and the Booming Middle Class
Chapter 9: China’s Sporting Self-Determination: Achieving Independent Global Sporting Dominance
Works Cited
2: Chinese Sport Policy from Reform to the Millennium
A Controlled Embrace: Special Zones and Coastal Cities
Proto-Professionalization and Early Marketization
International Sports Event Hosting
Olympic Underdevelopment and the Case for Investment
Works Cited
3: An Olympic China: Preparing for Beijing 2008
A Failed Bid
A Winning Application: Bringing the Summer Games Back to East Asia
Building an Olympic City
Sporting Talent to Shoulder the Nation
Women’s Sporting Successes and Embodying the Nation Through Sport
Presenting a Superpower
Works Cited
4: Global Sports and Shifting Focus: Sport Policy, Investment, and the Inter-Olympic Period
A Post-Olympic Moment
Ushering in a New Sporting Administration
Defining the ‘Global Sport’ Era in China
Sporting Policy and Investment in the Inter-Olympic Period
Inter-Olympic Investment in National Sports Performance
Mass Sports Participation in the Inter-Olympic Period
The Commercial Sport Sector and Its Expansion After Beijing 2008
Works Cited
5: Sport and Accessing a Global Community
The Realities of Sporting Soft Power
Global Sport as a Tool for China’s Program of International Interaction
International Success and Bringing the World to China
A Globally Oriented Chinese Middle Class
When the Global Elite Return
Critiques on Hosting International Events in China
A Turn Inwards: Chinese Decline in International Sport
Works Cited
6: When the Global Game Comes to the People’s Republic
The Early Growth of the Game in China
Women Led the Way: The FIFA World Cup in China
International Achievement
Where Is a Women’s Chinese Super League?
The Construction of a Super League
International Soccer and Underperformance
The Rot in the System at Home and Abroad
The Battle for the Soul of Chinese Soccer Continues
Works Cited
7: New Forms of Domestic Distinction: Sport and Contemporary Chinese Class Structure
Class in a Communist State
The Urbanization of China and the Rural/Urban Divide
Delayed Industrialization and Rapid Recovery
Urbanization and the Post-Reform Context
Internal Regulation and the Policy of Hukou
The Contemporary Urban Elite
Proxies for Class and Issues of Ethnicity: A Terminology of the Urban and the Rural
A Renewed Concern: Xi Jinping Addressing Rural Decline
The Growth of the Middle Class in China: Class Stratification with Chinese Characteristics
Physical Culture and the Complications of Social Class Identity
Sports on the Rise and Middle-Class Identity
Works Cited
8: Tennis Culture and the Booming Urban Middle Class
Translating a Sporting Culture
From the Asian Games to the Pandemic Era
Tennis in the Chinese Imaginary
Tennis Development Between the City and the Rural
The Role of Regional Differences
Tennis in a Chinese Sporting Future
Works Cited
9: China’s Sporting Self-Determination: Achieving Independent Global Sporting Dominance
Where Does China Stand in Sport Today?
Pandemic Effects and the Negative Impacts of Coronavirus on Chinese Sport Expansion
A Changing Domestic and International Policy Context
Sport and a New Era in Chinese Development
Looking Past the Beijing Olympics 2022
Works Cited
Index
