Sport, Ideology and Nation-Building in the Early Years of the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

This paper examines Chinese sport policy and practice from 1949 to 1952 through an examination of the role of ideology in nation-building. Drawing on Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony, this study examines the nature of the ideological domination by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during this period and explores its sports policy and the political implications of this policy. Arguing that sport policy in the early years of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was shaped by ideological requirements, the paper demonstrates that the CCP viewed sport as not only essential for physical wellbeing and discipline but also for the proper functioning and stability of the new regime. Nationalism, Maoism and Sovietization together dominated China’s sports policies in this period, though the CCP’s dominant ideology included a tendency towards pragmaticism. This mixed ideology, anchored in pragmatism, helped the party-state achieve ideological hegemony in the superstructure of Chinese society in the early years of PRC. Sports policy and its implementation became both a means of achieving this hegemony and a cultural reflection of the process.