“Parents, Me & X-Sports”: Mapping the BMX Culture in Contemporary China

Abstract

Since the debut of BMX (bike motocross) cycling in the Beijing Olympics, lifestyle sports have gradually entered the public limelight and gained popularity in China. Lifestyle sports that celebrate leisure, excitement, and individuality have steadily grown a crowd of youth followers in major Chinese cities. This article contextualizes the BMX culture in contemporary China, particularly the local cultural dynamics of the subculture. Using evidence gleaned from interviews and media representations, I argue that while many of the features of development of BMX culture in China mirror that in the West acceptance by the family has become a central theme when it comes to BMX riders’ career choice in China—a “Parents, Me & X-sports” relationship.

Miedo y depresión en la práctica del BMX en jóvenes deportistas de la liga Tunja-Boyacá, Colombia

“…La depresión en hombres ha sido un tema estudiado por múltiples áreas de la psicología, especialmente la clínica. Sin embargo, este estudio se centró en el abordaje con deportistas con el fin de explorar ciertas premisas que permita entender mejor el funcionamiento psicológico en algunos deportes como el BMX, Nardi (2004), por ejemplo, señala que la sintomatología solo puede ser confirmada mediante diagnóstico, y que el ciclo vital es fundamental para enfatizar las causas y las consecuencias de la presencia de la depresión (Ding, 2019). Chomalí, Espinosa, Galdames, & Marín, (2015).…”

Research Of Value Orientations Of Engineering Students In The Context Of Globalization

“…Within the subculture, its own heroism and its own theme of creativity are developed. The latter makes it possible to detect subcultures that materially express themselves through sports (Ding, 2019), graffiti (Jacobson, 2020), in preferred Fantasy (Rutherford et al, 2016), clothing, dance, music (Gbogi, 2016;Rowe, 2017;Trainer, 2017;Wang, 2019) and song (Simões & Campos, 2014), mostly demonstrating racial identity. And also, it expresses through the creation and use of slang (Wang, 2019), in the deviant orientation of the youth subculture (De Backer, 2019;Liu & Xie, 2017;Pollard, 2016), in weakening the desire to get an education.…”

Chinese women skateboarders in Hong Kong: A skatefeminism approach

“…An emerging niche of research has sought to address lifestyle sports in East Asia (Casari, 2019; Ding, 2019; Dixon, 2015; Evers and Doering, 2019; Hölsgens, 2019; Li, 2017; O’Connor, 2018; Sedo, 2010). Yet the issue of women in lifestyle sports in East Asia is largely undeveloped.…”

“…This may also be explained in part by the fact that most of our participants had only been skateboarding for six years and under, and therefore their parents may be more exposed to the commercial and sporting legitimacy of skateboarding. Similarly, Ding (2019) recognises the importance of family approval for male Chinese BMX riders related to Confucian family hierarchy and honouring parents. In Brownell’s (1996: 238) work on women athletes in China the issue of family approval is somewhat circumvented by coaches who seek to recruit young women from impoverished rural areas.…”