Extravagance and its decline : China’s triple East Asian games since the 2000s
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science
Publication Date
2017
Volume
6
Issue
1
First Page
19
Last Page
33
Publisher
Routledge
Keywords
SAR, municipality, East Asian Games, hosting style, China
Abstract
From 2005 to 2013, the celebrations of the last three East Asian Games respectively took place at China’s two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) – Macau and Hong Kong – and one of its four municipalities – Tianjin. While Macau organized the 2005 Games in an extravagant manner, Hong Kong prepared the 2009 Games on a conservative basis. Tianjin even more frugally completed every single task for the holding of the 2013 Games. This article aims to understand the causes of their inconsistent hosting styles. The findings confirmed that the domestic elements of the SARs resulted in Macau’s extravagance and Hong Kong’s conservativeness, whereas factors relating to the central government of China led to Tianjin’s frugality. Thus, unlike the municipalities, the SARs, under their ‘One Country Two Systems’ franchise, were able to enjoy a high level of autonomy in handling local sports affairs. Data for analysis were from governmental documents, journalistic reports and scholarly works.
DOI
10.1080/21640599.2016.1277083
Print ISSN
21640599
E-ISSN
21640602
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2017 Routledge. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Chu, M. P. (2017). Extravagance and its decline: China’s triple East Asian games since the 2000s. Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, 6(1), 19-33. doi: 10.1080/21640599.2016.1277083