China and the Olympic Movement: Have the Beijing Olympic Games Changed China?

Abstract

The Beijing 2008 Olympics marked a pivotal moment in the history of China and the Olympic Movement, transcending sports and leaving an indelible impact on the global stage. From the successful hosting of the XXIX Summer Olympic Games in 2008 to the successful hosting of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games in 2022, it took Beijing fourteen years to become the first city in the history of the Olympic Movement to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and was known as the 'Dual Olympic City'. This research focuses on the significance of the Beijing Olympic Games to China, and more specifically, the long-term impact of the Games on modern society, culture, sports, education, national identity and international identity in the post-Olympic period.
In this study, the globalization theory and Preuss's 2018 legacy framework were selected as the basis for this study. This study adopts the position of interpretivist (epistemological) viewpoint, with qualitative research method as the main method. The case of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was selected as a single case study, and relevant data and information for the study were collected through literature and semi-structured interviews. Due to the complexity of this study, a range of sources were selected, including but not limited to official documents, reports, policies, and regulations issued by government departments, academic papers, published books and monographs, newspapers, internet articles, official data released by government departments and so on. Three techniques were used for data collection: documentation, participant observation and semi-structured interviews.
As early as 2008, Beijing put forward the "People’s Olympics" and chose "harmony" as its core concept, which was not only reflecting the return and promotion of the Olympic humanistic spirit, but also a key to solve the alienation and conflict crisis of the Olympic movement (Liu et al., 2011).
“Harmony" is one of the important elements of Olympic culture, and is also a core feature of Chinese ancient philosophy. The promotion of harmony and the concept of a people’s Olympics, at this point in time was of great theoretical and practical significance for the development of the modern Olympic Movement.
The Olympic Education Programmes associated with the Beijing Games played a pivotal role in the promotion of the Olympic spirit and the creation of an Olympic culture in China. The Heart-to-Heart Partnership programme ("Tongxin Jie") and the Olympic Education Model School, as the innovation of the education programme of the Beijing Olympic Games, have been instrumental in the inheritance and enrichment of the connotation of the Olympic culture in the most direct way of educating young people. The volunteer programme of the Games is a valuable Olympic legacy, and it continues to play a positive role in the post Beijing Olympic period.
It shows that the direct contribution of the Olympics to the economic growth of the host country or even the host city is very small or even negligible. The aim for China in terms of the overall impact of the Olympic Games on China's economy is to improve the level of industrial structure and urban infrastructure in Beijing and in several regions hosting competition, and to some extent to promote the improvement of the environment and strengthen the cooperation between cities. Through the Games, China's global visibility has been enhanced, and economic cooperation between China and the international community has been promoted (Patrick et al., 2011).
In addition, this study also shows that hosting the Games has a positive effect on promoting and publicizing China's national image and reputation, and China plays a more active role in the reconstruction of the international sports order and reshaping of the pattern after the Games. By pursuing the achievements of elite sports, more Chinese sports administrators have entered international sports organizations and held important positions in them, thus enhancing their power or influence in international discourse, decision-making the power of Chinese sports.

Date of Award	6 Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Hong Fan (Supervisor)