Sport and ethnicity

This chapter provides a by no means a comprehensive understanding of all Asian societies that construct ethnicity through sport, as it is limited to those studies published in English which focus on rising superpowers, notably China, India, Japan and Korea. In other words, we have left out a massive amount of significant research published in the countries’ native languages. This points to the need to move towards post-monolingual research methodologies that complicate the privileged and taken-for-granted scholastic view of English-medium knowledge in this intellectual field.65 Alongside the lack of discussion of literatures from the native languages, this chapter also does not offer concentrated attention to the emerging themes in ethnicity in sport. Notably, the discussion points out that the intra-ethnic relations and ways in which ethnic minorities within Asian countries play out in sport are often undermined. Likewise, the inter-ethnic relations with other parts of Asia (including geographically located Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific islands) in a range of sport are worth further examination. The current intra-and inter-ethnic relations in sport in Asia, when considered in conjunction with gender, power and politics, reveal the necessity of promoting diversity, equity and social justice through international and mega sporting events in Asia.