The Social Construction Of Olympic Culture In China From The Perspective Of Cultural Sociology

For the Chinese society,the Olympic movement is a typical exogenous culture.Its growth from exotic into today' s mainstream culture is subject to the social interaction,negotiation and construction of pluralistic subjects in different historical stages of social relations,which is also the product of power and ideology game in Chinese social structure.The current study learns and integrates the social and cultural theories of social constructivism,cultural stratification and cultural representation as well as the literature essences of Olympic culture and Chinese Olympic history,and employs the research methods of literature digging,expert interviews,case studies and textual analysis to systematically explore the social construction of Olympic culture in China from the perspective of cultural sociology.The research indicates:1.The social construction of Olympic culture in China has undergone four historical stages,including the infancy period(the year of 1900 to 1949),dormant period(the year 1949 to 1979),multiple growth period(the year of 1979 to 2008)and renewing period(since the year of 2008 till now).During these historical stages,the main social constructors of Olympic culture in China includes political institutions and relevant entities,educational organizations,mass media organizations,Olympic sponsors,business entities of sports industry as well as various sports NGOs.2.Under different social construction field of Olympic culture in every historical period,the motivations and reasons for each subject to construct the culture vary because their distinct identities and social status.However,the social construction motives followed the similar pattern that taking advantage of the values and functions of Olympic culture(sports ideology)to renovate and build up new identities.In essence,the Olympic culture is a tool of reasonableness to change and create new reality.3.In the course of social construction of Olympic culture in China,different constructors would abide by their own institutionalized habits to organize and implement cultural meaning manufacture.However,they would also follow the same model of culture representation by inputting Olympic meanings and symbols into public domain in the manner of large-scale of social production.And in this way,the transformation circle from objectification to subjectification would start.4.The products of social construction of Olympic culture in China not only encompass the sports and physical culture and the values of Olympicism and idealism,but also consist of nationalism,patriotism,consumerism,media-oriented elements and civil-spirit cultural objects given the nature and objectives of diversified social constructors.