From Celestial Empire to Nation State: Sport and the Origins of Chinese Nationalism (1840–1927)

The history of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic clearly showed the close relationship between sport, nationalism and politics, and reflected the changes in Chinese society and Chinese people’s view of their identity as well as their way of thinking. Sport had a great importance, not only for the construction of Chinese nationalism and national consciousness, but also for the eventual transformation of China from a celestial empire into a modern nation state. It played an important part in Chinese nationalists’ strategy of restoring the power of the nation