Football, Nationalism, and Fan Violence in China

Brian Bridges

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, 2008, vol. 37, issue 2, 60-82

Abstract: The linkages between football, nationalism and spectator violence in China are analysed by discussing the reactions of the Chinese to two footballing defeats: the World Cup qualifying loss to Hong Kong in 1985 and the loss to Japan in the 2004 Asian Cup final. Using both political science and sociological perspectives, the settings of the two games and the violent post-match reactions of the Chinese fans are examined within a comparative framework against the background of Chinese nationalism, China’s complex relationships with Hong Kong and Japan at the time of the two games, and the significance of sport (and football in particular) in Chinese popular and governmental perspectives. The article argues that while the concept of hooliganism might best explain the 1985 events, nationalism provides greater insight into the 2004 events.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:37:y:2008:i:2:p:60-82

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/china-aktuell

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell from Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Karsten Giese () and Heike Holbig ().