East Asia is increasingly prominent within global sport. In the short period between 2018 and 2022 it will have held two Winter and one Summer Olympics, and the Rugby World Cup for good measure. This is not a sudden development. It has been in train for some time, although many scholars, especially in Europe and North America, have been focussed primarily on sport in their own countries and regions. J.A. Mangan, who for decades has been looking closely at sport in East Asia while encouraging others to do likewise, has made a major contribution to knowledge and understanding of a once under-appreciated subject. This excellent collection in his honour analyses the key interwoven elements of sport, media and nation in China, Japan and South Korea. It demonstrates how the structure and practice of sport connects in myriad ways with its representation, not least with regard to national narratives, international rivalries and transnational trends. It is a book that does signal justice both to East Asian Studies and to the academic who recognised the importance of sport to that field, and who has done so much to ensure that the region is centrally placed within any contemporary analysis of the world of sport.
David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
Professor Mangan is the master dissector of the connections between sport and politics, geopolitics and nationalism across multiple Asian contexts. A collection of essays in honour of his long service to academic understandings of these fields is well deserved, and the editors and contributors to this volume have served up a worthy tribute. Showcasing new work by a stellar cast of China, Japan and Korea experts, in combination the papers collected here yield valuable insights into the issues of nation building, identity, media representation and sport which have been the subject of Professor Mangan’s pioneering work over the past several decades. No one has done more to put East Asia on the map in terms of academic research on the manifold socio-political dimensions of sport, and this superbly constructed volume orchestrated by rising Tianwei Ren confirms that we neglect this fascinating, complex region at our peril.
Jonathan Sullivan, Director of China Policy Institute and China Soccer Observatory, Associate Professor, School of Politics and IR. University of Nottingham
