The Beijing Olympics as Indicator of a Chinese Competitive Ethic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12220187 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kevin Caffrey (Harvard University Press, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1122-1145 |
| Publication date | 2009-06-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of the History of Sport (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0952-3367 • E-ISSN: 1743-9035 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09523360902904900 |
| OpenAlex | W2052178105 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 16 |
Before the nation-form paradigm of political realism most commonly associated with Western inter-state politics came to dominate China, its imperial logic of external state interaction was traditionally organized by a cosmological-political ordering of tribute relationships that we might want to call ‘soft power with Chinese characteristics’. One of the ways in which outside influences have been made local in China in recent decades was the increase in the importance of the Olympic Games as a meaningful political event. This essay focuses on an element of this new Chinese appropriation of this originally foreign idea to show a corresponding utilization of a ‘competitive ethic’– not really new, and perhaps only newly positioned, but novel in this field nonetheless – that has been internalized in Chinese politics. This ethic was in the West descended from muscular Christian sentiments and eventually caught up in an atmosphere of prevailing ideas about war and political strength in the social Darwinist climate at the beginning of twentieth century; and its particular Chinese history has allowed a popular imaginary of China's place in the world that is rife with tropes of ‘strong bodies’ making a ‘strong state’ in a global economic battlefield. This epistemological framework illuminates resource diplomacy moves made in east and south Asia, and a few anecdotal observations of China's activities in the world show how its competitive ethic is alive and well. Nonetheless, the exact ramifications of this ethic with Chinese characteristics are as yet unknown
Appropriation · Beijing · China · Diplomacy · Epistemology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Realism · Sociology · State (computer science · Chinese history and philosophy · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy
Science and civilization in China
The religion of China
Zhongguo de Ya Zhou nei lu bian jiang
From Max Weber
China and Central Asia, 1368-1884
Protestant Ethic and the ‘Spirit of Capitalism’
The Saga of Anthropology in China
"East Asia in Henry Luce's "American Century
Inner Asian Frontiers of China
In Defence of the Archaic
The Saga of Anthropology in China
From Max Weber
To Make the Four Hundred Million Move
The Frontiers of 'Burma
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2011 (2) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |