Details

Series

Contemporary Asia in the World [More in this series]

Summary note

The Beijing Olympics will be remembered as the largest, most expensive, and most widely watched event of the modern Olympic era. But did China present itself as a responsible host and an emergent international power, much like Japan during the 1964 Tokyo Games and South Korea during the 1988 Seoul Games? Or was Beijing in 2008 more like Berlin in 1936, when Germany took advantage of the global spotlight to promote its political ideology at home and abroad?Beyond the Final Score takes an original look at the 2008 Beijing games within the context of the politics of sport in Asia. Asian athletics are bound up with notions of national identity and nationalism, refracting political intent and the processes of globalization. Sporting events can generate diplomatic breakthroughs (as with the results of Nixon and Mao's "ping-pong diplomacy") or breakdowns (as when an athlete defects to another country). For China, the Beijing Games introduced a liberalizing ethos that its authoritative regime could ignore only at its peril. Victor D. Cha—former director of Asian affairs for the White House—evaluates Beijing's contention with this pressure considering the intense scrutiny China already faced on issues of counterproliferation, global warming, and free trade. He begins with the arguments that tie Asian sport to international affairs and follows with an explanation of athletics as they relate to identity, diplomacy, and transformation. Enhanced by Cha's remarkable facility with the history and politics of sport, Beyond the Final Score is the definitive examination of the events—both good and bad—that took place during the Beijing Olympics.

Notes

Description based upon print version of record.

Source of description

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

Language note

English

Contents

• Frontmatter
• 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
• Postscript
• Notes
• Index

Show 12 more Contents items

Other format(s)

Issued also in print.

ISBN

• 1-283-00772-X
• 9786613007728
• 0-231-51929-X

OCLC

• 746580068
• 1013938620
• 979739371

Doi

• 10.7312/cha-15490

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...