Beyond the Final Score

by Cha, Victor D.

• ISBN13: 9780231154901
• ISBN10: 0231154909
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-29
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

The Beijing Olympics will be remembered as the largest, most expensive,and most widely watched event of the modern Olympic era. But did China presentitself as a responsible host and an emergent international power, much like Japanduring the 1964 Tokyo Games and South Korea during the 1988 Seoul Games? Or wasBeijing in 2008 more like Berlin in 1936, when Germany took advantage of the globalspotlight to promote its political ideology at home and abroad?Beyond the Final Score takes an original look at the 2008Beijing games within the context of the politics of sport in Asia. Asian athleticsare bound up with notions of national identity and nationalism, refracting politicalintent and the processes of globalization. Sporting events can generate diplomaticbreakthroughs (as with the results of Nixon and Mao's "ping-pong diplomacy") orbreakdowns (as when an athlete defects to another country). For China, the BeijingGames introduced a liberalizing ethos that its authoritative regime could ignoreonly at its peril.Victor D. Cha& -former directorof Asian affairs for the White House& -evaluates Beijing's contentionwith this pressure considering the intense scrutiny China already faced on issues ofcounterproliferation, global warming, and free trade. He begins with the argumentsthat tie Asian sport to international affairs and follows with an explanation ofathletics as they relate to identity, diplomacy, and transformation. Enhanced byCha's remarkable facility with the history and politics of sport, Beyondthe Final Score is the definitive examination of the events-both good and bad& -that took place during the BeijingOlympics.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables Preface Chronology 1. Purism Versus Politics 2. The Argument 3. More Than Just National Pride 4. Greasing the Wheels of Diplomacy 5. The Olympic Facelift 6. Catch-22 7. The Slippery Slope of Change Notes Index