Foucault’s History of the Present: The Birth of the Games Concept Approach in Singapore’s Physical Education Curriculum

Abstract

The year 1999 saw a major shift in Singapore’s Physical Education curriculum when the traditional teaching approach in primary schools was replaced by a more game-like one, aptly known as the Games Concept Approach (GCA). Based on Foucault’s ‘History of the Present’ which intended to distinguish the kind of historical projects that brought this change, the focus is on tracing the forces that gave birth to the present-day practices and identifying the historical conditions which caused this shift towards GCA. Inspired by Foucault’s distinct elements of status, institutional sites and situation, the perspective of revealing a ‘history of the present’ on the birth of GCA in Singapore creates a better understanding of why it is still being taught in the PE curriculum.     

The Heroine of Free China: A New Image of Diplomatic Envoys and the Female Body of the Liangyou Women’s National Basketball Team in the 1950s

The Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and Communist Party that ended in 1949 caused a confrontation between the ‘Free China’ in Taiwan claimed by the Republic of China, the KMT that retreated to Taiwan, and the ‘New China’ established by the People’s Republic of China. The sport policies of the ‘Two Chinas’ were based on the respective political positions, which were affected greatly by the Cold War. Taiwan, ruled by the KMT affiliating with the camp of the capitalists led by the USA, was the revival base to connect with Chinese in several East and Southeast Asian countries and to connect with other Asian anti-Communist countries. Political and military policies contributed to Taiwan women’s basketball development during the Cold War in East Asia and the first national team named Liangyou thus emerged. The Liangyou’s life symbolized the beginning and the phased ending of women’s basketball development in Taiwan, and skilful players of noble character practised loyal diplomatic missions and publicized the strong body-mind heroine image of Free China. Their healthy and cheerful character along with a passion for basketball provided new ideas of women’s roles in post-war Taiwan. Trips for overseas competitions let players experience the outside world.     

The History of Modern Organized Badminton and the Men’s Team Thomas Cup Tournaments, 1948–1979

Modern organized international badminton began with the founding of the International Badminton Federation (IBF) in 1934, consisting of nine founding member associations. The inaugural men’s Thomas Cup tournament began in 1948 when 10 countries took part. Malaya won the Cup four times in 1949, 1952, 1955, and 1967. When Indonesia took part in the tournament for the first time in 1957, there were 19 competing teams. Indonesia won the triannual tournament seven times from 1957 to 1979. Throughout the 11 Thomas Cup tournaments, only two Asian countries have won the Cup. The only European country, Denmark, qualified to play in the finals five times without a single win. Malaya (later known as Malaysia), Indonesia, and Denmark became leading Thomas Cup teams because they produced singles and doubles players that won many All-England Badminton Championship titles. The winners of these titles were generally considered the world champions. The key sources of information for this research consisted of the IBF annual statutes for listing of participating nations, tournament programmes, and rare specialized books on badminton and the Thomas Cup competition. English language newspapers such as the Singapore Free Press and the Straits Times published historical match results for checking the secondary data collected.     

#SheBelieves: the use of Instagram to frame the US Women’s Soccer Team during #FIFAWWC

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine of the representation of women athletes during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. More specifically, we examined how individuals used various event-related hashtags (ie #SheBelieves and #FIFAWWC) on Instagram during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup to frame identity, and challenge or reinforce gender stereotypes from the bottom-up. A content analysis of athlete photos containing #FIFAWWC (n = 706) and athlete photos containing #SheBelieves (n = 629) revealed that users primarily portrayed women athletes as athletically competent. Specifically, nearly 90% of Instagram posts containing either #FIFAWWC or #SheBelieves portrayed athletes in either athletic action or preparing for athletic action. These findings demonstrate that social media provide an opportunity to challenge gender stereotypes in women’s sports and thereby illustrate that social media users are willing to create their own frames around women athletes.     

A Bird’s-Eye View of the Past: Digital History,Distant Reading and Sport History

Advances in computer technologies have made it easier than ever before for historians to access a wealth of sources made available in the digital era. This article investigates one way that historians have engaged with the challenges and opportunities of this ‘infinite archive’: distant reading. We define distant reading as an umbrella term that embraces many practices, including data mining, aggregation, text analysis, and the visual representations of these practices. This paper investigates the utility of distant reading as a research tool via three newspaper case studies concerning Muhammad Ali, women’s surfing in Australia, and homophobic language and Australian sport. The research reveals that the usefulness, effectiveness, and success of distant reading is dependent on numerous factors. While valuable in many instances, distant reading is rarely an end in itself and can be most powerful when paired with the traditional historical skills of close reading.     

Winifred:An Excessively Rational Woman in the Trap---an Interpretation of the wife in The Door of the Trap from the Perspective of Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus

Anderson' s works pose a great challenge to critics due to his revolt against the literary tradition and the difficulty of the classification of his works. His language is tainted with obscurity and va...     

A review of batting in men’s cricket

In this review, we critically evaluate the scientific research into the morphology and physiology of cricket batsmen. We consider all aspects of the motor control of this skill, in the context of research into dynamic interceptive actions, the biomechanics (kinematics and kinetics) of the various phases of batting strokes and injuries to batsmen. Some attention is also devoted to batting equipment and to psychological factors in batting. Because of the lack of published scientific research into women's cricket, this review focuses on the men's game and covers research on batsmen of various playing standards. For the future, we see as a high priority research into injury mechanisms, rather than simple injury statistics, and the role of cricket equipment design in injury prevention. A second priority is for multi- or inter-disciplinary research, linking the biomechanics of batting to the underlying motor control of the movements and the effect of environmental information. Biomechanical studies of the variability of the batsman's movements are needed, and these should be related to the compensatory variability proposal of ecological psychology. Clearly, there is also a need for scientific research into batting in women's cricket, which has been inadequately researched to date.     

‘A galaxy of sporting events’: sport’s role and significance in the Festival of Britain, 1951

The 1951 Festival of Britain has long been seen as a key moment in the country’s post-war history – especially in terms of popularising modern architecture and contemporary interior design, as well as symbolising the transition from acute economic austerity to a long period of relative affluence. However, successive writers have largely or completely ignored sport’s role in the Festival project. This paper argues that, in fact, sporting fixtures played an important role in the national and local festivities which were staged between May and September 1951. Their range, diversity and popularity means that the Festival should begin to be seen as a more successful and less insular event than previous studies have suggested. On the other hand, the support that such fixtures received from various newspapers and via the airwaves – courtesy of the BBC – indicates that the Festival faced far less media (and, indeed, political) opposition than its organisers liked to suggest and most historians have hitherto accepted. By studying the Festival’s sports programme, therefore, it is possible to gain fresh insights into the project as a whole and reassess its overall performance.     

Analysis of the Mentality of China Women＇s Volleyball Team in Previous World Series Game

通过比较分析中国女排参加的历届世界大赛,在不同的比赛阶段、面对不同的对手,所抱有的比赛心态,总结中国女排参加世界大赛的经验得失,帮助现阶段中国女排重新树立自信心,以期待能为伦敦奥运会的备战提供参考。     

‘A lesson in football wisdom’? Coverage of the unofficial women’s World Cup of 1971 in the Mexican press

ABSTRACT

When Mexico hosted the 1971 Women’s World Cup, it raised considerable challenges for local journalists. The domestic game had never received significant press attention, but mounting public interest in such a prestigious tournament demanded a response from national and sporting newspapers. In this chapter, we analyse the extent to which the masculine hegemonic environment of the newsroom dictated the perspective, language, and imagery deployed by journalists in their reports. While underlying sexism and cynicism characterised more traditional, conservative sections of the printed media, our analysis reveals a surprising degree of willingness to adapt and learn new ways. In tracing the dynamics of this process we assess the extent to which a more enlightened appreciation of Mexican women’s football only lasted for as long as they continued to win matches.     

Sport and the New Culture of the ‘Second Golden Age’: Amsterdam’s Sporting Entrepreneurs in the 1880s and 1890s

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Amsterdam underwent important changes in its economic, social, and cultural life as the city entered what is often referred to as its ‘Second Golden Age’. Old elites gave way to new and a new more entrepreneurial culture emerged focused on mass, visible, and consumable activities, including sport, in which the body played a central role. This was especially apparent from the late 1870s and 1880s when spatial changes within the city helped to ensure that sport was increasingly the location for new kinds of associational activity and the development of new products, all underpinned by the potential for profit. Entrepreneurs such as Perry & Co., De Gruyter, and the Amsterdamsche Sport-Club were able to effect strategic combinations between the new body culture and consumerism, producing a range of new products and exploiting new technologies to create new markets. In seizing these opportunities, Amsterdam's entrepreneurs were also reproducing the concept of the trainable, measurable, and consumable body.     

Before the ‘Black Ferns’: Tracing the Beginnings of Women’s Rugby in New Zealand

Abstract

Women’s rugby union in New Zealand has increased in popularity over the past decade, preceded by two decades of dominance at the international level and much activism to have the women’s game recognized and supported, nationally and provincially. However, as this paper reveals, women’s engagement with the game, as players, began more than 100 years before the Black Ferns won their first international tournament. Through an examination of several fleeting ‘episodes’ of women’s attempts to play in earnest, as represented in digitized newspapers from Papers Past, it becomes apparent that women’s foray into the hyper-masculinized team sport of rugby challenged dominant sensibilities but was not wholly resisted. The ‘events’ investigated here suggest that gender roles may have been more porous than traditionally invoked by the categories of ‘Victorian’ and ‘New Woman’, contested, albeit intermittently, by the actions of Pākehā and Māori women around the colony.     

An Investigation into the History of the Taekwondo Uniform since the Korean Peninsula’s Liberation from Japan

Abstract

This paper investigates the complex history of the taekwondo sport uniform. Although the uniform is an outward symbol of South Korea’s most popular martial art and national sport, few researchers have elucidated the uniform’s history. From studies into martial art uniforms, and the taekwondo uniform in particular, it is discovered that the tradition of wearing white trousers and jacket began with judo in the nineteenth century. This tradition was carried over to karate and other Japanese martial arts in the early twentieth century. After the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japan, the taekwondo uniform began to evolve from its Japanese progenitors. The first important changes to the taekwondo uniform were implemented by Hwang Gi, who altered it to meet a traditional Korean clothing style. The 1970s saw the second important transformation to the uniform, whereby it became exclusively regarded as sports attire. However, since the 1970s, the taekwondo uniform did not account for traditional Korean clothing styles, and it faced several criticisms. Recent changes to the World Taekwondo Federation’s poomsae uniform have addressed these problems. The distinctiveness of the new uniform will further distinguish it from its Japanese counterparts, and help to promote the true identity of taekwondo, as well as Korean culture, worldwide.     

Across Fields and Boundaries: Finding One’s Way in International Sports History

Abstract

This article presents my personal experience as a European scholar at the turn of the twentieth century. In this period, sports historiography was characterized by a shift from political and social history to a broader cultural consideration of sport. In a time when the internet was developing and exchanges between researchers became easier, I experienced and contributed to the internationalization of the field. Nevertheless, this evolution did not erase national boundaries, which are still present and reveal the weight of historical traditions.     

‘See These Brilliant Exponents of the Game’: The England Women’s Hockey Team Tour of Australia and New Zealand, 1914

Abstract

This paper argues that the 1914 England Women’s hockey tour of Australia and New Zealand has an ambiguous place within wider progress narratives of women’s sport. It created some important sporting precedents, being the first time Australian and New Zealand women’s teams had taken the field. The media reception of the tour was mixed. While the social pages and some of match commentary focused on the appearance of the players, the majority presented the tour as a worthy sporting spectacle. Indeed in the final match the New Zealand team was billed as the ‘All Blacks’, the name normally associated with national men’s teams. Moreover, the symbolic importance of the tour was enhanced by the fact that the tourists were accorded the same rites and rituals accorded men’s touring teams to New Zealand: parliamentary and civic receptions; playing in the leading sporting venues and being linked to imperial bonding.     

It’s Good to Talk: Oral History,Sports History and Heritage

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on what appears to be the relatively under-used methodologies associated with oral history – principally the interview as a primary source of data – in the writing of sports history. The observation is acknowledged as one made from a UK perspective, not least on account of the authors’ status as monolingual researchers, albeit from the different but culturally diverse nations of England and Scotland. The points of reference within this article are, therefore, necessarily drawn from works published in English, and the substantive oral history case studies are mostly sampled from those researched in the UK to date, chosen because they are either groundbreaking or illustrative of the opportunities, methodological challenges and politics that have come to be associated not only with the method itself, but the discipline of sports history. This paper will, therefore, firstly outline the development of oral history. Secondly, it will discuss the ways in which it has been applied within British sports history and, finally propose opportunities it presents for the future development of the discipline and those historians researching sport.     

From Budding to Developing: The History of China’s Sport Industry Policy

Abstract

The sport industry is an emerging industry in China. The aims of this paper are to explore the history of China’s sport industry policies and to reveal existing problems and their causes in these policies. In this qualitative research, documentary analysis and in-depth interviews of 15 interviewees were conducted. It is concluded that the history of sport industry polices in China has undergone roughly four stages: budding (1978–1992), exploration (1992–1998), integration (1998–2008), and developing (2008 onwards). The Chinese sport industry policies have experienced numerous problems. First, the policy goals are hollow, unspecific, and undefined. Second, the policies lack pertinence. Third, their value standard deviates from the constraint condition. Fourth, they lack continuity and stability. The complicated reasons for these problems include factors related to the sport management system, the policy value orientation of government, and the interest game between stakeholders throughout the policy process. This paper, therefore, presents suggestions for China’s sport industry policies. First, the sports market should be opened gradually. Second, the government should increase policy support. Third, the government should support and regulate the development of professional sports. Fourth, the government should promote the construction of a national and local sport industry base.