Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

China usually regards hosting international sports events as a great opportunity to win glory for the country and enhance its national image. The whole country would feel extremely proud either for winning medals by its athletes or for hosting such events. Thus heavy investment in such events becomes a matter of high priority to the national and local governments. Whether these efforts are effective at improving the country’s image have seldom been their consideration. However, heavy investment in international sports events does not always bring positive effects to the country’s image. On contrary, doing so often attracts the foreign media’s attention to the negative aspects of China’s image, rather than to the achievements of Chinese athletes. These negative aspects include China’s state sponsored sports system, environmental pollution, the political system and human rights issues. This not only offsets China’s efforts to improve China’s international image but also makes it very difficult to reverse those negative views. This study focuses on divergent perceptions of China’s national image building through major international sports events. It argues that China has yet to find more effective ways to realize this goal with international audiences, to improve its system of managing international sports events, to reduce waster of resources wasting and to build an image of a powerful sports country that is peacefully rising.