Modern physical education and sport in China are not products of indigenous Chinese culture. Traditional Chinese culture linked strenuous physical activities to low class and status. Modern PE and sport were introduced to China by Western Christian missionaries and directors of the Young Men's Christian Association, and grew from a tool for Christian evangelism to an important tool for Chinese nation-building. This book examines this process of transformation of Chinese attitudes toward PE and sport, using the concepts of cultural imperialism and nationalism as a lens to understand how a...

The history of China's National Games - first held in 1910 - reflects the transformation of both elite sport in China and wider Chinese society. This is the first book to describe the origins and development of the National Games, and to explore the dynamic interrelationship between the Games, Chinese politics, and nationalism during the process of Chinese nation-building in the modern era. It also examines how the Games were reformed to serve the requirement of China's Olympic Strategy in the context of sports globalization and commercialization since the 1980s. A fascinating read for...

Teaching the skills necessary to play sport depends partly on transmitting knowledge verbally, yet non-verbal or tacit knowledge also has an important role. A coach may tell a young athlete to 'move more dynamically', but it is undoubtedly easier to demonstrate with the body itself how this should be done. Skills such as developing a 'feel for the water' cannot simply be transmitted verbally; they are embodied in the tacit knowledge acquired from practice, repetition and experience.

This is the first sociological study of the transmission of skills through tacit knowledge in sport....