In December 2009, Hong Kong hosted its largest ever multi-sport event, the East Asian Games (EAG). Overshadowed initially by the excitement of the 2008 Beijing Olympics - and Hong Kong's part in hosting the equestrian events - the Hong Kong public was slow to appreciate the significance of the EAG. This essay examines the history of sports development in Hong Kong and the relatively 'underdeveloped' sporting culture, the expectations of the Hong Kong government and sporting community, and the impact and legacies of the EAG in terms of social change, economic costs and benefits, national prestige and pride, and education and culture. It argues that, for all the collective euphoria over Hong Kong winning the football gold medal, the EAG brought only limited - and short-term - economic benefits and attitudinal changes regarding sport. However, it did demonstrate that Hong Kong could, albeit with some assistance from China, host a multi-sport event and it did encourage some within and without government to seriously consider bidding for the much larger Asian Games.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2011.626692]

The present study examined longitudinal changes in Asian (i.e. Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) school students' national identity before, during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Participants were 946 secondary students aged 12-17 years from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This study revealed that residence, especially the hosting city, acted as the most significant factor in longitudinal changes and contribution to the national identity among the three regions. The time factor (before, during and after the Games) was only significant when it interacted with residence. These findings suggest that residence (hosting city) provided the greatest contribution in national identity before, during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2012.692248]

This paper reports on an ethnographic field research conducted in Beijing in 2007, with an attempt to examine the cognitive and affective orientation dimensions of a group of Hong Kong students toward the Beijing 2008 Olympics and their negotiation of national identity. In 1997, China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong under the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems,' continuing a long history of Hong Kong people struggling with their national identity. Study tours to Mainland China had been arranged as an extension of national education, with the Beijing Olympics as the main theme. With field notes and focus groups, this study found that the tour provoked in the students an interesting mixture of pride and skepticism and also reinforced their 'insider/outsider' identity crisis. This article concludes that the debate over the use of Beijing Olympics as national education reflects an intrinsic paradox of the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems.'
[Copyright of International Journal of the History of Sport is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523360903556899 ]