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China and Sports, 1895-2008
Harvard University Press
June 2008
On Sale: May 31, 2008
392 pages
ISBN: 0674028406
EAN: 9780674028401
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Sports
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. Drawing on newly available archival sources to analyze a
hundred-year perspective on sports in China, Olympic Dreams
explores why the country became obsessed with Western
sports at the turn of the twentieth century, and how it
relates to China’s search for a national and international
identity. Through case studies of ping-pong diplomacy and
the Chinese handling of various sporting events, the book
offers unexpected details and unusual insight into the
patterns and processes of China’s foreign policymaking—
insights that will help readers understand China’s
interactions with the rest of the world. Among the questions Xu Guoqi brings to the fore are: Why
did Mao Zedong choose competitive ping-pong to manipulate
world politics? How did the two-China issue nearly kill the
1976 Montreal Olympic Games? And why do the 2008 Olympics
present Beijing with unprecedented dangers and
opportunities? In exploring these questions, Xu brilliantly
articulates a fresh and surprising perspective on China as
an international sport superpower as well as a new “sick
man of East Asia.” In Olympic Dreams, he presents an
eloquent argument that in the deeply unsettled China of
today, sport, as a focus of popular interest, has the
capacity to bring about major social changes.
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