Our Olympic Games? Transnational Chinese Overseas Identity and the Beijing Olympic Games 2008

This paper is based on a research project, in which I investigated the question of Overseas Chinese identity in Austria by means of analysing articles on the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, drawn from the Chinese-language magazine China Weekly (Zhōngguórén Bào) published in Vienna, in Austria. In order to get to know more about the points of reference conveyed in a newspaper or magazine, I singled out the different narratives in the reports and put them into the spatial, social, socio-economic, political and historical context in which Overseas identity is formed. As a massive international sports event with enormous media coverage, the Olympic Games stir up emotions and create notions of belonging. This paper tackles the question of how a Chineselanguage magazine deals with the sensitive issue of nationalistic sentiments, given that its readership is heterogeneous, living on the interface of the cultures of two nation-states. It furthermore investigates the relationship between modern sport, nationalism and transnationalism.

This paper is meant as a contribution to the study of Overseas Chinese, as well as other research fields. By looking at China from the vantage point of the Overseas Chinese, their role and place in the Chinese world, we can draw further conclusions on Overseas Chinese transnational identity and its formation. Additionally, the respective findings make for a better understanding of the relationship between China and the rest of the world.