Title: Networking Through the Y: The Role of YMCA in China’s Search for New National Identity and Internationalization
Abstract: For the Chinese the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was a milestone in their country's history. The Games meant international recognition and the emergence of a strong China. China's participation in World War I was another crucial event in modern Chinese history. The May 4th Movement and the founding of the Chinese Communist Party were, to a great extent, directly linked to the aftermath of the Great War. Surprisingly, the Young Men's Christian Association (the Y) played an important role in both events. By examining the Y's involvement in both cases, I will attempt to provide a fresh look at China's century-long obsession with internationalization and a new national identity. By internationalization I mean the ways in which the Chinese actively engage in and are engaged by the international system, by organizations, ideas, forces, and trends; it was a process that compelled China to associate with the outside world and the international system. As I have argued elsewhere, "Internationalization was driven by shifts in the flow of social, intellectual, economic, ideological, and cultural resources between China and the wider world, as well as by new Chinese interest in foreign affairs and their position in the world." (Xu 2011b, p. 19)
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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