Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-zpzq9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-10T16:53:25.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Beijing Olympics as a Turning Point? China's First Olympics in East Asian Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Susan Brownell
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

It is commonly stated that the 1964 and 1988 Olympics were “turning points” for the integration of Japan and South Korea, respectively, into the global community. It was anticipated that the Beijing Olympics would be a “turning point” for China. Now that the Beijing Games are over, we can ask whether anything “turned,” and if so, in which direction? This essay deals with a central paradox of the Olympic Games – they reinforce nationalism and internationalism at the same time. A one-sided focus on nationalism, such as characterized much of the media coverage of the Beijing Olympics, can lead to the erroneous conclusion that the Olympic Games exacerbate rather than moderate political conflicts. Wishful thinking that the Beijing Games would be a turning point for human rights and democracy led to the conclusion by China watchers in the West that the Beijing Games were not the turning point that was hoped for. However, reflection on what actually “turned” in Japan and South Korea helps us to see what we should actually be looking for in the case of China. This retrospective suggests that the interplay between nationalism and internationalism was similar in all three Olympic Games, and offers a more optimistic prospect for China's peaceful integration into the international community.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 23 , June 2009 , e4
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2009

References

Notes

[1] Geremie R. Barmé, “Painting over Mao: Notes on the Inauguration of the Beijing Olympic Games,” posted on China Beat August 12, 2008; reprinted in Kate Merkel-Hess, Kenneth L. Pomeranz, and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds., China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), p. 172; Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, “What Would Mao Think of the Games,” posted on thenation.com, August 22, 2008; reprinted in China in 2008, pp. 179-82.

[2] Liang Lijuan, He Zhenliang and China's Olympic Dream, translated by Susan Brownell (Beijing Foreign Languages Press, 2007), pp. 333-55.

[3] Susan Brownell, Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People's Republic (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 60-62, 315-18.

[4] 2008年北京奥运会的人文理念、社会价值与国家文化形象构建研究报告 [“Research Report on the Construction of the Humanistic Concept, Social Value and National Image of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games”], National Social Sciences Foundation Major Project #06&ZD007, People's University, Beijing (project initiated in 2006, final report published in 2008), p. 194.

[5] Haksoon Yim, “Cultural Identity and Cultural Policy in South Korea,” The International Journal of Cultural Policy, Vol. 8 (1)(2002), p. 46.

[6] Shimizu Satoshi, “Reconsidering the Significance of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics -Forgotten Historical Memories of East Asia, Modernization, Tokyo and Athletes,” paper presented at the conference on “The Olympics in East Asia: Nationalism, Regionalism, and Globalism on the Center Stage of World Sports,” Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hong Kong University, March 15, 2008; Christian Tagsold, “Turning Sport Upside Down in Japan: From Sports Mega-Events to the Trops Movement,” paper presented at the conference on “The Olympics in East Asia: Nationalism, Regionalism, and Globalism on the Center Stage of World Sports,” Yale University, October 3, 2008; Jilly Traganou, “Design and National Identity in the Olympic Games of Greece, Japan, China,” paper presented at the conference “From Athens to Beijing: West Meets East in the Olympic Games,” International Olympic Academy, Ancient Olympia, Greece, May 24, 2008.

[7] Shimizu, “Reconsidering the Significance of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics,” p. 4.

[8] Christian Tagsold, “The Tôkyô Olympics as a Token of Renationalization,” in Andreas Niehaus and Max Seinsch, eds., Olympic Japan: Ideals and Realities of (Inter)Nationalism (Würzburg: Ergon, 2007); Tagsold, Die Inszenierung der kulturellen Identität in Japan. Das Beispiel der Olympischen Spiele Tôkyô 1964 [The Production of Cultural Identity in Japan: the Case of the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games](Munich: Iudicium, 2002).

[9] Tagsold, “The Tôkyô Olympics as a Token of Renationalization,” p.118.

[10] Masumoto Naofumi, “Creating Identity -Olympic Education in Japan,” in Andreas Niehaus and Max Seinsch, eds., Olympic Japan: Ideals and Realities of (Inter)Nationalism (Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007).

[11] Brownell, Susan, “Western-centrism in Olympic Studies and its Consequences in the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” Earle F. Zeigler Commemorative Address delivered before the international conference, “Pathways: Critiques and Discourse in Olympic Research,” organized by the International Centre for Olympic Studies of the University of Western Ontario at the Capitol Institute of Physical Education, Beijing, August 7, 2008 [will be available at www.LA84foundation.org]; Susan Brownell, “论北京模式奥林匹克教育 - 东方特色，发展中国家模式,” [”On the Beijing Model of Olympic Education - Eastern Characteristics, A Model for Developing Nations“] 《教育科学研究》 [Education Science], vol. 12(2007): 18-20.

[12] Tagsold, “The Tôkyô Olympics as a Token of Renationalization,” pp. 126-27.

[12] Susan Brownell, “Beijing's Olympic Education Program: Re-Thinking Suzhi Education, Re-Imagining China's Future,” China Quarterly 197(March 2009): 44-63.

[13] Ok Gwang and Ha Nam-Gil, “Beyond All Barriers: The Significance of the 1988 Seoul Olympics.” Paper presented at the conference on “The Olympics in East Asia: Nationalism, Regionalism, and Globalism on the Center Stage of World Sports,” Yale University, October 3, 2008.

[14] Jarol B. Manheim, “Rites of Passage: The 1988 Seoul Olympics as Public Diplomacy,” The Western Political Quarterly 43(2)(1990), pp. 291-93.

[15] Richard W. Pound, Five Rings over Korea: The Secret Negotiations Behind the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul (Boston and New York: Little, Brown, 1994), pp. 320-23.

[16] Manheim, “Rites of Passage,” p. 291.

[17] 吴忠义 [Wu Zhongyi], 高彩云 [Gao Caiyun], “我国TROPS 运动的理论建构与实践”[“Theory Construction and Development Trend of TROPS Movement in China”] 《体育学刊》 [Journal of Physical Education] 9(3)(May 2002): 9-11. http://www.chinatyxk.com/editer/doc/20068716355028346.pdf

[18] James P. Thomas, “The 1988 Seoul Games and the Legacies of an Olympic Regime,” in William Tsutsui and Michael Baskett, eds., forthcoming volume based on the conference “Olympia Desires: Building Bodies and Nations in East Asia,” University of Kansas, April 10-12, 2008.

[19] 许立群 [Xu Liqun], “国家体育总局局长刘鹏：举国体制要坚持要完善” [“Liu Peng, Director of the State Sport General Administration: The State-Supported Sport System will be maintained and perfected”], 人民日报 [People's Daily], September 6, 2008, http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1027/7830416.html.

[20] Johnson, Ian, “The New Gold War,” Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2008, Page A1, http://s.wsj.net/public/article_print/SB121763204928806141.html.