ABSTRACT
After 1 October 1949 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) finally won national power and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Communists promised that it would be a New China embracing gender equality. Have women received full equality now as the Party promised? What sort of changes has the Communist Party brought to Chinese women’s sport and their social position? Why has Chinese women’s sport achieved so much in such a comparatively short time in a country of such deeply-rooted feudal tradition? What has been the political impact on sport in Communist China and what influence has it had in turn on women in Chinese society? What is the basis for the contradiction between political rhetoric and grassroots reality? To answer these questions, we have to put women’s sport in the context of the change of political objectives, gender relationships, sports ideologies and management systems from 1949 to the present.
