Sports and Chinese Society

Sports and Chinese society topics have always generated a strong impact, as China has hosted important sports events like the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2022, and the Asian Games in 2023. Hong Kong and Guangdong will co-host the national game in 2025, further increasing local interest in sports-related issues. Professor Guoqi Xu, a scholar of sports and Chinese society, has received significant attention from policy-making levels and the media, making his research increasingly relevant to policy and society.

During the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Professor Xu was frequently sought after by major media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, New Yorker, and Hong Kong local media. In 2021, he advised the Asian Games’ working group on an official documentary, which will be shown worldwide during the games. To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of ping pong diplomacy, the National Committee on US-China Relations invited Professor Xu to give extended interviews.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, Professor Xu has been invited to give numerous public lectures on sports-related topics in Germany, the US, Mainland China, and Hong Kong, including recent lectures at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Museum of History.

During the Paris Summer Olympics, Professor Xu was interviewed extensively on topics such as China’s Olympic aspirations and the global implications of sports diplomacy. Additionally, he delivered talks at leading institutions. These engagements underscored the sustained importance of his work in interpreting the role of sports in shaping China’s identity and its interactions with the world.

REsearch OUTPUT

Books

  • Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 (Harvard University Press, 2008)
  • 奥林匹克之梦：体育视野下的中国与世界，1895-2050 (Olympic Dreams: China and the World through the lens of Sports, 1895-2050), Chinese University Press of Hong Kong
  • Reimaging China through Sport’s Global Public, in Valeska Huber and Jurgen Osterhammel (eds.), Global Publics: Their Power and Their Limits, 1870-1990 (London: Oxford University Press, 2020)
  • Reimagining and Repositioning China in International Politics: The Role of Sports in China’s Long 1970s, in Priscilla Roberts and Odd Arne Westad (eds.), China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s in Global Perspective (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
  • Networking through the Y: The Role of YMCA in China’s Search for New National Identity and Internationalization, in Madeleine Herren (ed.), Networking the International System: Global Histories of International Organizations (Berlin: Springer, 2014)
  • 体育与中美关系的历史发展：纪念乒乓外交50周年 (The Role of Sports in the Historical Development of Sino-American Relations: An Essay in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Ping Pong Diplomacy), 美国研究 (The Chinese Journal of American Studies), Vol. 35, No. 3 (June 2021)

Articles

  • Xu, Guoqi. “On Sports as American New Frontier and Safety Valve between the 1890s and 1920s.” South China Quarterly: Journal of University of Macau, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Feb 2024), 46-59

RESEARCH IMPACT

Media Coverage

  • Xu, Guoqi. “Mao Sheng X Xu Guoqi: Why Do Chinese People Care So Much About the Olympics? How Sports Have Shaped China’s History and Reality.” Bu Ji Bu Sui Podcast, August 6, 2021. Listen here.
  • Cheong, Danson. “Beijing first to host both Summer and Winter Games.” The Straits Times, Feb 5, 2022. Link
  • Li, Zheng, “Olympia: The role and contribution of sports in the history of China-US relations.” The Paper, Feb 15, 2022. Link
  • McCarthy, Simone. “Fifty years after Nixon’s historic visit to China, questions hang over the US-China future.” CNN News, February 21, 2022. Link
  • Myers, Steven Lee, Keith Bradsher, and Tariq Panja. “China’s Games: How Xi Jinping Is Staging the Olympics on His Terms.” The New York Times, January 24, 2022. Link
  • Osnos, Evan. “How Beijing is Playing the Olympics.” The New Yorker, February 7, 2022. Link
  • Stallard, Katie. “China doesn’t just want to be part of the global order – it wants to shape it.” The New Statesman, February 2, 2022. Link
  • Syed, Metter. “Sideways: China’s Ping Pong Power Episode 1-3.” BBC 4, July 6, 2023. Link
  • Tyson, Ann Scott. “No more charm offensive: How China’s Olympics goals have shifted.” The Christian Science Monitor, February 4, 2022. Link
  • Wade, Stephen. “China less worried about global criticism these Olympics.” AP News, January 26, 2022. Link
  • Xu, Charles. “China’s Olympic battle for legitimacy: The prehistory of the 2022 Beijing Games.” Mail & Guardian, February 9, 2022. Link
  • Xu, Guoqi. “Interlocking Rings: Image and Identity at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.” Interview by Amy Qin. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, February 23, 2022. Link
  • Zeng, Kailin. “Professor Xu Guoqi chairing the 13th Yu Ying-shih Lecture in History.” New Asia Life Monthly Magazine, June 2023. Link
  • “The Background and Recent Developments of ‘Go Taiwan’ Becoming a Banned Slogan at the Paris Olympics.” BBC Chinese, August 8, 2023. Link
  • Xu, Guoqi. “Vol. 43: A Conversation with Xu Guoqi on the Olympics: Has the Olympics Changed, or Has the World Changed?” The Historian, Podcast, July 25, 2024. Link

Talks and Panel Discussions

  • Xu, Guoqi, Wilcox, Emily, Hong, George, and Guan, Mengtong. “The Role of Cultural Exchange in the History of U.S.-China Relations.” China Center for Social Policy, Columbia University, New York, February 28, 2024. Link
  • Xu, Guoqi. “What Do We Mean by ‘China’? A Transnational and Shared History Perspective.” Humanities Colloquium, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, September 25, 2024. Link

LATEST PUBLICATION

奧林匹克之夢：體育視野下的中國與世界 1895－2050 [Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895–2050]

CUHK Press 

Publication Date:
2021