ABSTRACT
Hosting the Olympic Games is seen by most Asian nations as a means of national restoration, the construction of national identity, economic prosperity and international recognition. In this sense the Olympic Games have significant symbolic power. Also China recognised the Olympics’ potential to present to the world a modern and powerful nation and had therefore since 1985 hoped to host the Olympics. China ended its isolation in 1978 when it rejoined the International Olympic Committee and in 1984 participated in its first Olympic Games since 1954. In order to become a sports superpower by the end of the twentieth century China established its famous ‘Olympic Strategy’ in 1985. Hosting the Olympic Games was an important part of the strategy to make China a sports superpower, as well as a political and economic power, that could compete on equal grounds with the USA, Japan and South Korea. However, China’s dream of hosting the Olympics did not just start in the 1980s. The dream began in 1908.
