Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China

By 1907, staff at the Tianjin YMCA were rallying their Chinese charges with the cry: When will China be able to send a winning athlete to the Olympic contests? When will China be able to invite all the world to Peking for an International Olympic contest? Nearly a century later, on the eve of China's first—ever Olympic games, this innovative book shows for the first time how sporting culture and ideology played a crucial role in the making of the modern nation—state in Republican China. A l...