The Comparison of the National Identity Construction at Sporting Mega Events in Asia and Globally

• Název práce v češtině: Srovnání konstrukce národní identity na sportovních mega událostech v Asii a ve světě
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The Comparison of the National Identity Construction at Sporting Mega Events in Asia and Globally
• Klíčová slova: Sports nationalism, Sporting mega events (SMEs), Opening ceremonies, National narrative of identity
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2022/2023
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Katedra sociologie (23-KS)
• Vedoucí / školitel: prof. Dino Numerato, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 25.09.2023
• Datum zadání: 27.09.2023
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 15.09.2025 08:45
• Místo konání obhajoby: Jinonice - U Kříže 8, Praha 5
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 28.07.2025
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 15.09.2025
• Oponenti: Mgr. Tomáš Dvořák, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

The 19th Asian Games will be held in September 2023 in Hangzhou, China. In addition, China has hosted several other international sporting mega events (SMEs) in the past ten years, including the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the 2022 Winter Paralympics. The hosting of Asian Games makes part of the Chinese Government’s strategy to use sports events as a vehicle to form, preserve, and strengthen national identity, as emphasized in China's 14th Five-Year Plan on Sports Development.
International sporting mega events draw audiences from all over the world and boost the host nation's prominence thanks to the global reach of the mass media (Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006). Sport is viewed as a tool for spreading and strengthening national identity (Arnold, 2021). Organising a mega sports event enables the host nation to build national identity that fosters fervent nationalist feelings throughout the event (Grix & Lee, 2013, 522).
Through the use of the media, SMEs establish a "forum" for the creation of national identity in the host country (Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006). The host country has different discursive strategies in constructing national identity (Wang, Wang & Yan, 2021).They may reinforce a specific image of the country by creating a narrative in terms of diplomacy, historical narratives, and cultural symbolism (Wang, 2019).
As the two most significant international sporting mega events held in China, the Olympic Games and the Asian Games drew a high number of spectators (Wang, Wang, & Yan, 2021, 102). The Asian Games, as a sporting mega event in Asia, draw spectators mostly from participating countries in the Asian region, in contrast to the global Olympic Games. The dynamics of global vs. regional identities may be highlighted by contrasting and examining the distinctions between the Asian Games, which are more regionally focused, and the Olympics, which have a global reach.
Against this backdrop, the thesis will address the following questions: How did China construct its national identity in the Olympic Games and the Asian Games, respectively, in front of audiences from different regions? Does China's use of identity discourse during the Asian Games differ from that of the Olympic Games, which are broadcast to a worldwide audience?

Literature review
Much of the literature concerning sports mega-events has highlighted the impact of mega sporting event on the host country, covering a range of economic, political and cultural aspects. Horne and Manzenreiter (2006)suggested that a detailed analysis of mega sporting events such as the World Cup and the Summer Olympics help to reflect on several intersecting and overlapping themes that are relevant to contemporary social science, such as the power relations between the nation states, supranational sports federations and sports business (Butler, 2002) or the nexus between media, sport and business (Jennings & Sambrook, 2000).
In the academic study of sport, Anderson's (1991) the concept of 'imagined community' has become one of the most widely used theoretical tools to explore the construction of national identities (Whigham, 2021). Smith (2004) suggests that the competitive, supra-linguistic, and plebeian characteristics of most sporting disciplines make them the best medium for expressing group identities. The sport enables people to uphold the belief that "they are one", constituting an "imagined community" in Anderson's sense (Wang, 2019). Sport offers the possibility of instantiating the concept of nationhood so that individuals can simultaneously consume and reproduce national culture in relation to this concept (Arnold, 2021). Bromberger (1994, 283) argues that the symbolic function of sport 'provides a forum for the expression of affirmed collective identities and local or regional antagonisms'. One way sport functions as a nationalist mechanism is by fusing the individual and collective experiences that take place in sporting events to national identity as a symbolic ritual. Ultimately, a unique national identity is constructed (Seippel, 2017, 45).
Custer's (2003) identified three categories of national identity—legitimizing identity, resisting identity, and project identity that serve as a theoretical framework for examining differences in the ways that national identity is constructed. He argues that these three categories of identity are in a dynamic process of transformation. For example, resistance identity may trigger some programmes and eventually transform into project identity. This dynamic shift means that races in different contexts may develop different identity constructions (Wang, 2019).
Contributions in Fan's (2013) edited volume titled Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism examines the evolution of the emergence, confrontation, expansion and maturation of the Asian Games between 1913 and 2006. Like the Olympic Games, the Asian Games has a strong element of national identity and nationalism, but unlike the Olympic Games, it also has a strong element of regional identity and orientalism. Through the Asian Games, Asian countries have established not only their national identity, but also their regional identity as members of Asia. Therefore, Fan (2013) similarly to other authors (Attali, 2016; Lutan, 2005) see the Asian Games and GANEFO (Games of New Emerging Forces) as a challenge to the Euro-American domination, various forms of racism and imperialism. The function of decolonisation played by sport in terms of resisting identity is reflected here.
Lee and Grix (2013) in Soft Power, Sports Mega-Events and Emerging States explore the significance of Brazil, China and South Africa hosting major sporting events. Their case study points to China's wish to demonstrate the country's development and improvement through a wide global audience for the Olympics, as well as assisting in the domestic validation of its own political ideology. This relates to Custer's suggestion of legitimising identity, where sport becomes one of the ways in which the state demonstrates institutional advantage.

Seznam odborné literatury

1. Anderson, B.(1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. ‎ Verso; Revised edition (September 13, 2016).
2. Arnold, R.(2020). Nationalism and Sport: A Review of the Field. Nationalities Papers. 49: 1, 2–11.
3. Attali, M.(2016). The 2006 Asian Games: self-affirmation and soft power. Leisure Studies. Vol. 35, No. 4: 470–486.
4. Bairner, A. 2001. Sport, Nationalism and Globalization: European and North American Perspectives. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
5. Billig, M. (2010). Banal nationalism. SAGE Publications Ltd.
6. Close, P., Askew, D., & Xin, X. (2006). The Beijing Olympiad: The political economy of a sporting mega-event. Routledge.
7. Fan, H. (2013). Sport, Nationalism and Orientalism: The Asian Games. Routledge.
8. Giulianotti, R. (2015). The Beijing 2008 Olympics: Examining the interrelations of China, globalization, and soft power. European Review, 23(2), 286-296.
9. Grix, J., & Lee, D. (2013). Soft power, sports mega-events and emerging states: The lure of the politics of attraction. Global Society, 27(4), 521-536.
10. Horne, J., & Manzenreiter, W. (2006). An introduction to the sociology of sports mega-events. The sociological review, 54(2_suppl),1-24.
11. Lemus-Delgado, D. (2023). Opening ceremonies and national identity: Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020. National Identities, 25(5),463-482.
12. Lutan, R. (2005). Indonesia and the Asian Games: Sport, Nationalism and the ‘New Order’. Sport in Society, Vol. 8, No. 3, 414–424.
13. Wang, L. (2019). Sports and National Identity: Theoretical Discussion and Chinese Perspective. Journal of Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, Vol.43(3): 46-53.
14. Whigham, S.(2021).Editorial: Sport, nationalism, and the importance of theory. Sport in Society. Vol.24, No.11, 1839-1848.
15. Xu, X. (2006). Modernizing China in the Olympic spotlight: China's national identity and the 2008 Beijing Olympiad. The Sociological Review, 54(2_suppl), 90-107.

Předběžná náplň práce

This thesis examines the opening ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games as case studies. It applies narrative analysis and comparative case study methods to investigate how nation-states strategically organise national narratives in different communication contexts to construct national identity expressions. The data for this thesis primarily consists of the recorded broadcast materials of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Hangzhou Asian Games. Both opening ceremonies were broadcast live by China Central Television (CCTV), combining large-scale visual performances with real-time official commentary. To further enrich the context, this thesis will also collect interviews with the production teams and the directors, and the policy documents of the two opening ceremonies. All of them were reported by Xinhua News Agency, other state-owned media and the event organising committees.