Physical Culture, Sports, and the Olympics

For research on China & Basketball Paper

Bibliographic

 * Brownell, Susan. "Physical culture, sports and the Olympics." The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 2008.

Content

 * Brownell traces the history of Chinese DESIRE to compete, win, and host the Olympics (339)
 * First medal 1984 in LA
 * Then traces the perceptions of anti-sports attitudes in China and abroad (340)
 * Mao Zedong's first published essay was on sport: 'A Study of Physical Culture' written in 1917


 * "Self-orientalism- application of of Orientalist views to their own culture by native intellectuals- led reform-minded Chinese to criticize their own culture for its lack of a sporting tradition. Thus, sports became a key symbol in China'a quest for modernity" (343)


 * Interesting discussion of the anomaly of martial arts. Are they sport?
 * Only two recognizably non-western sports at the Olympics are Judo and Taekwondo
 * "wushu is a symbol of an alternative non-Western sports tradition that must be preserved against the onslaught of the West" (347)


 * "Sports played an important role in the formation of a national identity in the early years of the PRC; television made this possible" (350)
 * e.g. -> World Championships of Table Tennis broadcast in 1961 to 10,000 (mostly publicly placed) TVs resulted in 3,000 letters and several thousand phone calls (350-351)


 * "The establishment of a national television network and the rapid improvements in television transmission technology contributed to the centrality of sports in the shaping of national identity" (353)
 * e.g. -> when China defeated Japan in a women's volleyball it was broadcast live and caused "spontaneous demonstrations erupted across china"
 * Compare with Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History

From readings At Cambridge