Running middle-class–marathon craze in transforming period of China

Abstract

Since China’s reform and open-up, Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes. As a result, the large size of the Chinese middle-class has become an important symbol for analyzing the new Chinese society and sports. In recent years, ‘Marathon Craze’ among Chinese middle class groups has become a phenomenon. Thus, an anthropological study of 15 middle-class marathoners (including 5 women) in the important Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing should show how middle-class groups in China control their lives through physical discipline and how marathons construct a new medium for emotional release, identity building, and self-worth realization.