Debates on Football and Chinese National Identity

Abstract

This chapter critically evaluates whether football can attain recognition as a national sport in China. Article No. 11, released by the Chinese government in 2015, aimed to develop a new national strategy centralised on the sport of football to foster consumption and enhance national soft power. Consequently, this also means encouraging Chinese football fans to support the national football team. Comparing the significance of local football clubs and the national football team to Chinese football fans is deemed meaningless and unable to generate useful information to comprehend Chinese people's attitudes towards local and national communities. Through literature comparisons with established Chinese national sports such as Chinese martial arts, badminton and table tennis, the discussion reveals that football currently falls short of meeting the general criteria of invention and popularity to be considered a Chinese national sport. In the specific Chinese context, it also proves that football fails to meet the criterion of politics, hindering its identification as a national sport. Consequently, the chapter rebuts the assumption and advocates for the validity of comparing how fans assess their fandom for local and national football teams.

Citation

Jiang, K. and Liu, J. (2024), "Debates on Football and Chinese National Identity", Tian, E. and Wise, N. (Ed.) The Mediating Power of Sport (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 49-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420240000021004