Softpower, Soccer, Supremacy

J.A. Mangan is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Royal Anthropological Society and Royal Society of Arts, with Fellowships (or their equivalents) at Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford and elsewhere. He is the author or editor of many books including the internationally acclaimed Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School, The Games Ethic and Imperialism and 'Manufactured' Masculinity: Making Imperial, Morality and Militarism. He was Director of the International Research Centre for Sport, Socialisation and Society at Strathclyde University and has lectured worldwide. Peter Horton is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University and has taught in Britain, Australia, China and Singapore. His research interests include the socio-cultural analysis of historical and contemporary dimensions of sport, physical education and health. In recent years his research and writing have been centred upon the politics, cultures and societies of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region. His recent significant publications include Manliness and Morality: The Mangan Oeuvre—Global Reflections on J.A. Mangan’s Studies of Masculinity, Imperialism and Militarism and Japanese Imperialism: Politics and Sport in East Asia—Rejection, Resentment, Revanchism (edited with J.A. Mangan, Tianwei Ren and Gwang Ok). Christian Tagsold has a Heisenberg Position in the Department for Modern Japan, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He has published broadly on sports mega-events in Japan. Together with Andreas Niehaus he edited Sport, Memory and Nationhood in Japan: Remembering the Glory Days. His other research interests include the aging society in Japan and Japanese gardens in the West. His latest book Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West was awarded the Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize in 2019 by the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

List of Tables – Acknowledgements – J.A. Mangan: Prologue: Xi’s Chinese Dream: "Rice and Pitches" (‘粮食与球场’)—Imperial Strategies – Li Jinning/Keiko Ikeda: China, Politics and Soccer: The Era of the Cultural Revolution—The Immediate and Eventual Consequences for "The Chinese Dream" – Jiahao Hu: Chinese Sports Diplomacy: Intentions, Innovations, and Impediments—The Background to the BRI and BRICS Initiatives – Tobias Zuser: Building a Successful Superhighway: Soccer Revolution and the Realization of the Chinese Dream—An Overview – Emma Lupano: Dreams: The Pursuit of Consensus and the Display of National Power—Chinese Soccer Softpower Narratives – Leah (Xiufang) Li: Positive Projection: Soccer and Xi’s Softpower Strategy—Branding, Intention, Ambition, and Assertion – Tobias Zuser/Lawrence Ka-ki Ho: "The Chinese Dream": Neglected Dimension—Who Is Chinese?Multi-Ethnic Soccer Representation – Tzu-hsuan Chen/Alan Bairner: Crossing the Penalty Area? The Dynamics of Chinese/Taiwanese Football – John Connell: Dreams, Desires, and Destiny: Football and Fantasies in China – PART 2: Korean Perspectives – Jong-sung Lee: Failed Diplomatic Tool: Soccer—An Evolving Soft Power Relationship between China and Korea – Kyoungho Park/Gwang Ok: From Chinese Neurosis to South Korean Nightmare: Soccer as a Shifting Barometer of National Self-Confidence – Udo Merkel: Sport as a Nation Branding Tool in Divided Korea: Soccer, Status, and Softpower – PART 3: Japanese Perspectives – Christian Tagsold/Sato Ryohei: Japan and China: Overview—Leagues and Clubs – Christian Tagsold: Meeting Xi’s Ambitions with a Critical Eye: Japan’s Reaction to China’s Football Dreams—A "Further Caveat" – Colm Hickey: "The Guiding Light for the sport in Japan!"—Middlesex Wanderers and the Development of Football in Japan, 1967–2017: Regional Domination? An Anglo-Saxon Heritage of Supremacy to be Respected and Retained? – PART 4: Australian Perspectives – David Rowe/Keith Parry/Bonnie Pang: The China Question and Soccer in Australia – Peter Horton: Blinded by the Light! Hard Ball Disguised as Soccer: Interpreting China’s Football Dream—An Australian’s Reflection – Steve Georgakis/Andy Harper: Will Xi Jinping’s China Soccer Dream Become Australia’s Football Nightmare? – J.A. Mangan: Epilogue – Contributors – Index.

"China's rapid rise has taken the world by storm and by surprise. But its ambitions have not all been realised yet. Soccer remains one sport where expectations have so far exceeded results. This edited volume is a timely and path-breaking investigation of the motivations, methods, and likely impact of President Xi's dream of soccer success in a regional context. Reflecting the multi-national team of experts involved, this volume not only charts China's domestic footballing development but also highlights how China's aspirations interact with other Asian footballing powers, Japan, Australia, and the two Koreas. A very welcome addition to the literature."—Brian Bridges, Affiliate Fellow of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong

"This collection edited by J.A. Mangan, Peter Horton, and Christian Tagsold is cutting edge scholarship about a development of enormous consequences both for regional geopolitics and global sports studies. It is the exciting launch volume of a new series by Peter Lang on Sport in East and Southeast Asian Societies edited by Professor Mangan. The organized sports of the modern era, their administrative bodies, and their special relationships may have developed in Great Britain, Europe, and the United States, but in the twentieth-first century, it is the nations of East Asia which are fast becoming the dynamic center of the global sports scene with all the associated geopolitical softpower consequences. This is certainly true for soccer, which is rapidly becoming the major sport throughout the region and particularly in China. This collection is the most comprehensive and cosmopolitan analysis yet of how China—the state, the media, corporate sponsors, and a nation of passionate fans—is becoming a soccer superpower, inter alia, in pursuit of international softpower supremacy."—William W. Kelly, Sumitomo Professor Emeritus of Japanese Studies, Yale University, United States