Sport in China’s Universities and Colleges from the Late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China (1890s-1937)

: Origins, Expression and Problems

Abstract

This paper references literature to focus on three aspects: the origins, the expression of sport, and the problems faced by sport in China’s universities and colleges from the Late Qing Dynasty to the era of the Republic of China.
In China’s traditional cultural system, physical culture did not develop into something similar to sport as it had developed in Western cultures. This Western sport was introduced into China, where it emerged and developed in Christian and government-run higher education institutions in the period from the 1890s to the early 20^th century. Competitive sporting events became the expression of university and college sport from the Late Qing Dynasty to the era of the Republic of China, including collegiate, national and international games. These games were advocated and organized by Chinese-based offices of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and higher education institutions, and the athletes who participated were mainly students enrolled in universities and colleges. One of the problems faced by university and college sport in the period was the contestants system.
The paper’s conclusions are as follows: 1) the origins of university and college sport in China can be identified in the period from the 1890s to the early 20^th century; 2) university and college sport in China represented the pinnacle of sport at that time and athletes who were training in higher education institutions made up the majority of athletes participating in competitive sporting events; 3) the contestants system had a significant impact on sport popularization in higher education institutions in the 1920s and 1930s.