Sport and Nationalism in China

This book examines the relationships between sport, nationalism and nation building in China. By exploring the last 150 years of Chinese history, it offers unparalleled depth and breadth of coverage and provides a clear grasp of Chinese sports nationalism from both macro and micro perspectives. Beginning with a discussion on the role of sport in the Qing Dynasty’s Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895), the book examines how sport contributed to the shaping of the early forms of Chinese nationalism in the late 19th century. It identifies and defines the core functions of sport in the Chinese Nationalist Revolution which successfully transformed China from a culturally bound empire to a modern nation state in 1911. The following section, on the Republic of China Era (1912-1949), explores the interactions between sport and the construction of Chinese nationalism and national consciousness, illustrating how sport played its part in the building of the newly established nation state. Moving on to the Communist China Era (1949-present), the book scans the whole spectrum of both modern and contemporary Chinese nationalism and interprets the most important issues on the course of China’s nation building, explaining why sport is so tightly bound up with nationalism and patriotism, and how sport became an essential part of nationalists', politicians' and educationalists' strategy to revive the Chinese nation.