Beijing 2008: Preparing for Glory - Chinese Challenge in the 'Chinese Century' brings together international scholars with an interest in sport and politics and sinologists with an interest in China - past, present and future - to explore global reaction to the Beijing Olympics - China's anticipated moment of glory on the world stage. The Beijing Olympics was, first and foremost, a political act of assertion. It was also a statement of national intent, the culmination of ideological effort going back to 1949 and the outcome of political, social, cultural and economic change. From the moment of the birth of the 'New China' sport has been viewed as a means of internal and external projection illustrating the capacity of the system and people to more than hold their own with those of other nations. In short, sport has been the chosen 'stage' on which the Chinese perform in pursuit of world recognition, respect and esteem. This assertion is not hard to understand. China's 'century of humiliation' at the hands of first the West and then Japan remains a traumatic experience. Beijing 2008 wass to assist the restoration of China's national self-esteem. He Zhenliang, Chairman of the IOC Commission for the Culture of Olympic Education, has remarked pointedly that the most significant outcome of the Beijing Games will be the elevation of the self-confidence and sense of pride of the Chinese people. Beijing 2008 was an act of political self-renewal on the world stage. This Collection demonstrates that sport is inseparable from politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

In 2008, as few in the world are unaware, China was host to the world via the Beijing Olympics. The world watched the metamorphosis of Beijing from insecure capital to confident metropolis but, aware of it or not, the world was also watching the symbolic assertion, via the Games, of a rising superpower. The Pacific Rim will be the stage on which China initially displays its new hegemonic intentions, aspirations and ambitions. Thus in Post-Beijing 2008, the political, economic and cultural impact of Beijing 2008 on the geopolitical future of the Pacific Rim will be discussed. This perspective, analysed by some of the most distinguished academic commentators from some of the world's leading universities who are closely associated with the Pacific Rim (East and West), is original in focus and the analysis is pregnant with political possibilities. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Encoding the Olympics assembles a uniquely representative international team of media experts to provide a comprehensive review of the global impact of media and cultural communications associated with the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Commissioned by the IOC, this pioneering comparative study – the largest in Olympic Games research –provides a ground-breaking, panoramic, cross-cultural perspective on media responses to the leading sports event of the modern world. The representative team that undertook the study includes media commentators and political analysts, sport and media journalists, Sinologists and observers of the Asian Pacific Rim, academics in Olympic Studies and media and communication studies, scholars of the cultural and sociology studies of sport and festival and events managers. Encoding the Olympics provides a unique, encyclopaedic study that will serve as a versatile resource at several levels – as a textbook or source reference for academic institutions, media public relations agencies that facilitate the work of inter-cultural exchange organisations, and international communication departments of multinational enterprises and international NGOs. This volume analyses global media responses to a mega-sport event on a scale never before attempted. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

The premise of The Asian Games: Modern Metaphor forThe Middle Kingdom Reborn - Political Statement, Cultural Assertion, Social Symbol is emphatic. The Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games was a metaphor for hegemony and renaissance. China crushed the other Asian nations with the massive weight of its Gold Medalhaul and demonstrated regional self-confidence regained. The huge accumulation of gold medals emphasized that once again China stood apart, and above, other nations of Asia. China's reaction and the reactions of the other Asian nations are explored in The Asian Games. There is another premise in the publication that theChinese Asian Games were a harbinger of a wider dominance to come: geopolitically, politically, militarily, economically and culturally. And there is a further issue raised by the Guangzhou Asian Games- the continuing determination of the Asian nations to mount a distinctive Games that is Asian and resistant to the cumbersome gigantism of the Modern Olympic Games. Asia now has the wealth to promote, present and project a global sports mega-event with an Asian identity and in an Asian idiom. This Collection is unique in focus, argument and evidence.This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

By representing their experience of modernity as different from the West in their respective Olympic Games, Asian nations reveal much about the ambitions and anxieties of being an Asian host in the continuing western Olympic hegemony. This original work explores the encounter between ‘the East and the West’ by analyzing the deliberate self-presentational cultural diplomacy historically required of Asian Olympic hosts. Exploring the relationship between Modern Asia and the Olympic Games, it focuses on the forgotten history of the 1940 Tokyo Olympics to reveal the complex and fascinating encounter between Japan and the world in the 1930s. The book is the first full account of this encounter and draws substantially on Japanese sources hitherto unknown in the English-speaking world. It argues that this encounter sets the scene and the tone for later Asian involvement in the Olympic Movement. It includes chapters on: Imperial Commemoration and Diplomacy the Japanese Fascist Olympics the Event, Japanese Style the Spectre of 1940 in Later Asian Olympics. This work fills a gap in the literature, and provides an original addition to the history of Japanese culture, Asian cultures and the Olympic Movement. This book is a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

"East Asia is increasingly prominent within global sport. In the short period between 2018 and 2022 it will have held two Winter and one Summer Olympics, and the Rugby World Cup for good measure. This is not a sudden development. It has been in train for some time, although many scholars, especially in Europe and North America, have been focussed primarily on sport in their own countries and regions. J.A. Mangan, who for decades has been looking closely at sport in East Asia while encouraging others to do likewise, has made a major contribution to knowledge and understanding of a once under-appreciated subject. This excellent collection in his honour analyses the key interwoven elements of sport, media and nation in China, Japan and South Korea. It demonstrates how the structure and practice of sport connects in myriad ways with its representation, not least with regard to national narratives, international rivalries and transnational trends. It is a book that does signal justice both to East Asian Studies and to the academic who recognised the importance of sport to that field, and who has done so much to ensure that the region is centrally placed within any contemporary analysis of the world of sport." David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University "Professor Mangan is the master dissector of the connections between sport and politics, geopolitics and nationalism across multiple Asian contexts. A collection of essays in honour of his long service to academic understandings of these fields is well deserved, and the editors and contributors to this volume have served up a worthy tribute. Showcasing new work by a stellar cast of China, Japan and Korea experts, in combination the papers collected here yield valuable insights into the issues of nation building, identity, media representation and sport which have been the subject of Professor Mangan's pioneering work over the past several decades. No one has done more to put East Asia on the map in terms of academic research on the manifold socio-political dimensions of sport, and this superbly constructed volume orchestrated by rising Tianwei Ren confirms that we neglect this fascinating, complex region at our peril." Jonathan Sullivan, Director of China Policy Institute and China Soccer Observatory, Associate Professor, School of Politics and IR. University of Nottingham

This cutting edge collection presents a political reading of the power of modern sport in Asia. Providing an interdisciplinary study of political and cultural tensions in Asia, past and present, through the key case-study of sport, it illuminates the complex practices and legacies of Japanese imperialism across East and Southeast Asia through the 20th century and beyond. Focusing on the deep background to contemporary dynamics of intraregional tensions, it examines sport both as a tool of imperialism and as an agent of reconciliation as the region gears up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Offering a unique contribution to East Asian Studies, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and Sport Studies, this work represent key reading for students and scholars of East Asian studies, International Politics and Sports Diplomacy.