Harvard University Press
Olympic Dreams
Key Metrics
- Guoqi Xu
- Harvard University Press
- Hardcover
- 9780674028401
- 9.46 X 6.54 X 1.25 inches
- 1.51 pounds
- Sports & Recreation > Olympics & Paralympics
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
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.
Author Bio
Professor Xu Guoqi was born in China and taught both in Asia and the USA before joining the University of Hong Kong's History Department. He writes and has published widely in both Chinese and English on various topics.
Professor Xu is a leading authority of international history of modern China. His peers in Society of Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS) recently honored him with the 2008 academic excellence award.
His book Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008, published by Harvard University Press in spring 2008, was chosen by International Society of Olympic Historians as the best book of 2008. The same book also received rave reviews from Washington Post, [London] Times, Irish Times, New York Review of Books, South China Morning Post, Toronto Star, Journal of Asian Studies, among many others.
The Phoenix Television (Hong Kong) devoted two whole episodes of its book program to focus on this book, a rare treatment for any authors. His ideas and comments have been frequently sought by media such as Associated Press, Reuters, the New York Times, the South China Morning Post. His invited articles appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, and other places.
Professor Xu’s research has attracted worldwide attention and his research profiles and interviews appeared in both the United States and China. Most recently two long interviews of him regarding his research on Chinese laborers in France during the First World War and the May Fourth Movement were published respectively in 2009 from China in China Archives China Archives’ February issue (????) and the July issue of Xi Hu Zazhi (????), a popular literary journal.
Research Interests
- International history of modern China
- China and the wide world
- First World War and Asia
- Sports history and diplomacy
- Issues related to Chinese national identity and internationalization
- US-China relations
- Sino-Foreign relations
- Ideas of China
Source: The University of Hong Kong Department of History
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