Global Sports and Contemporary China: Sport Policy, International Relations and New Class Identities in the People’s Republic

Description

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. 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