Unfair, Innocent, Flamed: Examining How the Chinese Public Perceived Sun Yang’s 8-Year Doping Sanction

Abstract

International sport has always been associated with nationalism. The purpose of the study was to explore how Chinese media and the general public perceived the doping scandal of their national sports hero, Sun Yang. Through analyzing 11 Chinese media outlets’ coverage on Chinese social media Weibo, the results revealed that Chinese media covered Sun and his team’s reaction and perspectives on this issue more when compared with other news. The general public’s perceptions toward this scandal tended to be favorable toward Sun, with 55.5% of selected Weibo comments defending Sun after his 8-year ban for doping was handed down. The analysis of these social media comments posted by sports fans showed that the general public’s perceptions might have been impacted by their nationalism, international relations, and media coverage. In addition, the study revealed the Chinese public’s perceptions toward current antidoping regulations.

Are They Really Chinese? Examining Chinese Audiences’ Emotions and Perceptions Toward Naturalized Athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics

“…This study has limitations. Although social media is an ideal outlet to understand public opinions, Weibo might not be a perfect platform to measure the Chinese general public's opinions due to the censorship employed by the Chinese government to control information distribution (Li et al, 2022). Users' comments might be deleted by the platform if the content is politically sensitive.…”

“…During these events, ingroup and outgroup memberships are more sharply defined (Anderson, 1991). For instance, sports fans could express their ingroup memberships through national flags waving, singing national anthems, and participating in nationalistic rituals (Li et al, 2022). The construction process of imagined nations through sports represents national identity.…”