By Guoqi Xu

Already the area has visible the political, fiscal, and cultural value of web hosting the 2008 Olympics in Beijing—in guidelines instituted and changed, positions softened, initiatives undertaken. yet will the Olympics make an enduring distinction? This publication techniques questions on the character and way forward for China during the lens of sports—particularly as activities reveals its utmost overseas expression within the Olympics. Drawing on newly to be had archival resources to investigate a hundred-year standpoint on activities in China, Olympic goals explores why the rustic grew to become keen about Western activities on the flip of the 20th century, and the way it pertains to China’s look for a countrywide and overseas identification. via case reports of ping-pong international relations and the chinese language dealing with of assorted exercises, the booklet deals unforeseen information and weird perception into the styles and techniques of China’s international policymaking—insights that might support readers comprehend China’s interactions with the remainder of the realm. one of the questions Xu Guoqi brings to the fore are: Why did Mao Zedong decide upon aggressive ping-pong to control international politics? How did the two-China factor approximately kill the 1976 Montreal Olympic video games? And why do the 2008 Olympics current Beijing with unheard of hazards and possibilities? In exploring those questions, Xu brilliantly articulates a clean and staggering standpoint on China as a world activity superpower in addition to a brand new “sick guy of East Asia.” In Olympic goals, he offers an eloquent argument that during the deeply unsettled China of this present day, recreation, as a spotlight of renowned curiosity, has the potential to result in significant social alterations. (20080420)

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Additional info for Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008

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Similarly, in the 1950s a wrestler named Riki Dozan brought millions of demoralized Japanese men to their feet by beating much larger, 36 Reimagining China through International Sports ★ ★ ★ ★ meaner, brawnier foreigners in the ring. 4 A loss in a major sports event, meanwhile, can have a negative effect. 5 Although modern sports have played a significant role in constructing identities and ideologies since their gradual emergence in the mid-nineteenth century, the political functions of sports became even more pronounced during the twentieth century.

So it is with the nation,” he continued. ”83 Other Americans also singled out China as an example of a country that had lost the fighting spirit. ”84 At the turn of the twentieth century, many Americans worried about the perceived decline of the United States and looked for ways to rejuvenate the country. General Palmer E. ” Such concerns with physical fitness and national preparedness had, according to sports historian S. W. ”85 Here again, the development of sports was to a great extent linked to the military, which played a key role in popularizing the causes of physical vitality and the American sporting spirit.

In the uproar that ensued, China’s sports organization decided to take part in the Games after all, sending Liu and Yu in China’s name. 19 In the end, only he was available to go to represent China in the Los Angeles Games. Yu Xiwei was quickly put under house arrest by the Japanese to prevent him from leaving to represent China. Once the members of China’s sports federation concluded that China would take part in the Games, they had to act quickly since the deadline to inform the Los Angeles Organizing Committee, June 18, had already passed.

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