This text brings Chinese women to the centre of the Chinese cultural stage by examining the role which exercise and, subsequently, sport played in their liberation. Physical emancipation, particularly in the custom of footbinding, which continued to be practised to some extent in China until 1949, was the prerequisite for wider emancipation. Through the medium of women's bodies, Fan Hong explores the significance of religious beliefs, cultural codes and political dogmas for gender relations, gender concepts and the human body in an Asian setting. Inquiry into the evolving relationship between...

In this book Douglas Booth looks at the role of sport in the fostering of a new national identity in South Africa.

Rugby union is a sport in transition, with an unclear future. Developments such as professionalization, globalization and the Rugby World Cup have altered the game forever, but the process of change has been going on for over a century. This work seeks to understand what has happened to rugby as it has moved from the realm of the English public school to the global realm dominated by Rupert Murdoch and other media entrepreneurs. It explores rugby and issues of race in the Empire/Commonwealth, rugby in non-British societies, women's rugby, homophobia and rugby, and nationalism and rugby,...

This volume covers the major socio-economic, political, cultural and sporting dimensions of this global sports event, including bidding for and organizing the 1998 Finals, the improvement of sporting and transport infrastructures, marketing, merchandising and media coverage, policing and security during the month-long competition and building a national team.

This book examines the construction of national, regional, and group identities in the football journalism of five European countries: England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Notions of the respective national stereotypes are explored in each of the countries studied: for instance, is the stereotype of the French as a nation producing stylish, elegant football teams reflected in all European countries? Are there differences in the reconstruction of the traditional image of the Germans being efficient and technically competent? Similarly the perpetuation of diverse regional identities...

Amateurism is often decried as second rate or outmoded. Yet it can be argued that doing things for the love of it rather than for money represents the higher and more meaningful form. It can also be the case that an economic system which has more voluntary, unpaid activity is thereby a more efficient system.

Cultures and nations remember themselves with select bodily images, evocative rituals and texts. This volume illustrates how sport is used in the creation, maintenance and now global dissemination of a nation's cherished values. Carefully drawn cases of sport in North America - American baseball and football, figure skating and gymnastics, Canadian hockey and track and field, for example - show the potency of sport's cultural work. The book captures uplifting images which are stressed in the public performance and national and international broadcasting of sport, but also notes the omissions...

An examination of the central features of the sport-media phenonmenon, with a focus on Europe and the USA. This study analyses such issues as new media technology; gender, ethnicity and local dimensions of collective identity; changes within the arena of the Olympic games; women in American basketball advertising; and cult football radio in Scotland. With the addition of an interview by the Senior Vice-President of NBC Sports, this book will of importance to students of both sport and the media, as well as interest to professionals and academic specialists within this field.

It is generally forgotten that cricket rather than rugby union was the 'national game' in New Zealand until the early years of the twentieth century. This book shows why and how cricket developed in New Zealand and how its character changed across time. Greg Ryan examines the emergence and growth of cricket in relation to diverse patterns of European settlement in New Zealand - such as the systematic colonization schemes of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and the gold discoveries of the 1860s. He then considers issues such as cricket and social class in the emerging cities; cricket and the elite...

Amateurism is often decried as second rate or outmoded. Yet it can be argued that doing things for the love of it rather than for money represents the higher and more meaningful form. It can also be the case that an economic system which has more voluntary, unpaid activity is thereby a more efficient system.