Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008
by Xu Guoqi
Harvard University Press, HK$240
Deng Xiaoping's idea of 'one country, two systems' has been famously applied to dealing with Hong Kong's return from British colonial rule but the principle made its debut on the running track, when it was applied to solve the Olympic dispute over self-ruled Taiwan, a province Beijing has pledged to take back by force if it moves towards independence.
In the face of such hardline opposition from Beijing, how do you deal with Taipei's demands to be represented at the Olympics? Reading Xu Guoqi's Olympic Dreams, his accomplished study of China and sport, it is sometimes impossible to see the sport behind the murky veil of politics, although in highlighting the general goodwill towards the Games in China, the book perhaps points the way to a non-political future for the event.
Recent accusations by Beijing that outside forces are trying to politicise the Olympic Games read a little hollow when you see how deeply political the Olympics have always been.
Any event that focuses on competing national interests is essentially political, as Xu points out in his book, which takes us from the end of the 19th century, when the word for sport, tiyu, first properly entered Chinese, until today when the world is watching to see what the Beijing Olympic Games will bring.
