Mega‐Events and Nationalism: The 2008 Olympic Torch Relay

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relationship between the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch Relay mega-event and contemporary imaginings of China's geopolitical position and the Chinese national geo-body. The performance of China's territorial presence at the international and domestic scales drew both support and resistance. Chinese media coverage of the spectacle reiterated tropes of geopolitical struggle and national unity. While these tropes resonated with some Chinese audiences who have been primed to recognize the Chinese geo-body through banal nationalism, Chinese citizens' satirical online comments reveal that some rejected the stilted ideological representations of the relay. Further, protesting groups' high-profile disruptions of the relay mega-event outside of the national territory of the host country worked to undermine the relay's international reception. Drawing from analyses of Chinese and international media sources and Chinese Internet satire, this article suggests that the scripted nature and geographical extent of mega-events compromises the geopolitical and nation-building aspects of such events in both neoliberal and postsocialist contexts.

Cycling, bread and circuses? When Le Tour came to Yorkshire and what it left behind

“…This is a crucial safe haven for tourists and locals trying to cross that busy road. Another complaint a few people made was that Le Tour would actually drive Skipton's usual visitors awaythe day-trippers, the real-ale drinkers and long-distance walkers, and have a negative impact on some shops and businesses as a result: what might be seen when sports mega-events such as the Olympics are held (Grant 2014).…”

“…At the same time, Le Tour has introduced formal bidding processes for towns and cities wanting to host starts and finishes of stages, and in the process has allowed Le Tour to transcend France's national bordersinto nearby countries as well as its cross-channel neighbour, the United Kingdom. These formal bidding processes are part of the wider sports mega-events industry, with cities bidding for events and making claims about the benefit of the events to the cities and regions (Grant 2014;Koch 2018;Lamont 2014;Schnitzer, Scheiber, Kornexl and Thöni 2017;Smith 2008). In the summer of 2014, there was no way of getting away from it: Le Tour de France was coming all the way to Yorkshire, a county in the north of England with its unique local traditions and sense of community, and Skipton, where I live, was going to be right in the middle of the action.…”

“…In this paper, there are a number of pertinent ways in which identity might be said to be constructed. Typically, sports mega-events are used by governments to boost national identity, and to construct narrow or elitist forms of that belonging, which reduce the complexity and diversity of modern nation-states into purer, older forms of folkishness (Grant 2014;Grix and Lee 2013;Koch 2018). Le Tour might be a typical case of this form of nationalism at work within France, though its trans-national reach might be said to be challenging the essentialist connection between Le Tour and the French nation.…”

Zone Fever, Project Fever: Development Policy, Economic Transition, and Urban Expansion in China

“…Increasingly, the state competes for the development of high‐tech and advanced‐business service industries by promoting the development of higher‐education districts, high‐tech zones, and central business districts (CBDs) (Wei ). Mega‐projects and events have long been encouraged by local states (Altshuler and Luberoff ), and globally oriented mega‐projects, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Grant ), are another symbol of globalization in China—here known as “project fever” (Cartier ). All of these efforts and policies have greatly contributed to urban development and urban land expansion.…”

Torched Earth: Dimensions of extraterritorial nationalism in the Chinese and Russian Olympic torch relays

“…Several publications have analyzed Olympic torch relays (Cahill, 1998;Horne and Whannel, 2010;MacAloon, 2013;Grant, 2014) and a rich literature exists on the role of sporting mega-events like the Olympics and World Cup in nation-building (Steenveld and Strelitz, 1998;Adams, 2010). Little geographic research, however, has interrogated the distinctly spatial practices of nationalism inherent within Olympic torch relays despite their embodiment of a ''recognizable national-territorial journey" (Stephens, 2016, p. 188).…”